


Black and Blue

by Northwind_Gale, UsagiSquared



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Genre: AU, Canon-'rewrite', Ccapac-Yuusei, Gen, Usagi's Domino-effect AUs, the character tags are a lie I FOCUS ON EVERYONE 8U
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-10-15
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2017-11-16 08:49:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 98
Words: 121,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/537648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Northwind_Gale/pseuds/Northwind_Gale, https://archiveofourown.org/users/UsagiSquared/pseuds/UsagiSquared
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the night when Kiryu was arrested, Yuusei wasn't able to watch Security take his friend under the belief that he had been betrayed; however an attempt to prove otherwise proves to change the world for not only him... But everyone else as well.</p><p>An AU 'Domino effect rewrite', collected in drabbles, ficlets, and short stories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“ _KIRYU_!”

It wasn’t raining. Perhaps others would look back on that day and say that it had been, but the fact remained that in the darkness above there wasn’t even a cloud in the sky. All the stars were their witness, all the shadows there to watch.

As Jack struggled against the bonds Security had used to keep him back, same as Crow. As Yuusei glowered at the man ‘congratulating’ him on the attempt to take the fall, but in the end, it was the ‘leader’ they were after.

The leader fighting fiercely against the officers dragging him toward the truck, whose eyes widened the instant he saw the gesture from the officer near Yuusei. “No… NO!” he roared, those pulling him away suddenly struggling to hold him back. “YOU..!”

He wasn’t sure why he ran. He just remembered wanting nothing more than to prove that he had not done what his friend now assumed. He had just wanted peace- Just wanted him to finally be satisifed with what he’d done in life and _stop_.

Yuusei wasn’t sure why he tore from the grip of the officers toward Kiryu. Why he was reaching out to attack another, in some futile attempt to free his friend. He wasn’t sure-

But in an instant he wasn’t any more.

And while it had never rained in reality, it would do so forever more in the memories of the others as Kiryu was loaded away into the van, his body frozen with shock. As the officers moved to take proper steps to ‘clean up the mess’, writing away an obvious case of ‘self defense’. It hadn’t rained-

But for Team Satisfaction, that day would forever be stained by a rain of red, pooling around the back of their best friend’s skull before acting as the last proof of his existence in that place.


	2. Chapter 2

Where was this place?

He’d opened his eyes to see a blinding light sitting above him, and found himself squinting at the sight. He felt… Light, to be honest. As though there was nothing really weighing him down.

That didn’t change the fact that he was lying on something under a bright light though, and as he attempted to remember exactly what had been going on before he passed out he heard someone enter the room.

“ _Ah..?_ ”

There were two people he realized as he turned his head, still squinting due to the sheer ferocity of the light from above. The room itself had a few rather sparse tables with lights as well, and at the end appeared to be walled with square drawers. It was a woman in a white coat who came in. She was followed however, by someone he recognized from a news feed on a broken tv he’d once passed in the streets.

This was the director of the Security Bureau he realized, face going white. And suddenly he recalled just what had happened the ‘night’ before. The rush to get everyone’s help. The desperation in Kiryu’s eyes and the crazed laughing he’d heard when they came before him. The rage his friend had as he’d turned to leave, the others holding him back when they’d told him they were going to help him escape- not fight.

And the look of desperate and agonized rage that had twisted with betrayal while officers pinned them all, taking Kiryu away-

They must have gotten him too then, he realized as he closed his eyes in thought. Damn. He’d have preferred if Kiryu escaped.

“Here he is,” the woman in white began, snapping Yuusei from his thoughts. As she led the director over the teen had to frown- they weren’t talking to him, addressing him… He almost wondered why he was on the table to begin with, but really, it all likely boiled down to ‘satellite scum’.

…So then why would the  _director_ …

“And there’s the mark…” the director observed, Yuusei in question blinking. Mark? “Such a pity… In the same moment it appeared,” the man continued, almost sounding disappointed about whatever it was he referred to.

“…Sir?” the woman beside him asked, only for the director to turn to leave.

“Standard procedure,” he called out. “There’s no use in it now- we’ll have his belongings dealt with.” His belon-

“NO!” he shouted, sitting up with remarkable ease. He couldn’t let them take his deck- not that, not his cards-!

As he sat however a chill ran down his spine, a shiver almost. The woman beside the table seemed to look  _through_  him almost, reaching forward…

“ _Gh-!_ ”

As she grabbed at the light above her arm passed through his  _neck_. And, grabbing it, his eyes moved downward only to stare in shock.

The body wore nothing, not like he himself. Where he still wore the vest and jeans he’d had for a few years already, there was nothing but bare, pale skin super imposing over his actual ones. And as his eyes followed the movements of the doctor they moved to the other side of the table, the sight shocking him further. His own arm after all, had followed him hadn’t it?

_So then whose arm was lying on the table?_

Without warning he fell- and in his surprise instinct kicked in, his being shooting back upward as he gasped, the sound not unlike a swimmer re-surfacing. In a sense, it felt like that to be honest.

He was floating in the air.

His  _naked body_  was laying on a metal table beneath a light while a woman in white filled out papers and clicked her tongue almost condescendingly, as though expecting better of the now deceased.

And it was only now that full memory of the night came to him. The sudden burning at the back of his skull, before his vision snapped black. The horror and stiff shock that replaced rage and betrayal on Kiryu’s face.

He couldn’t…

A whole storm of emotions passed over his face,  sad broken expression of shock finally cementing as his ‘body’- or at least the ghostly, translucent memory of it, hovered. He… He was…

“ _…I’m dead…_ ”

The light switched off as the mortician left the room.

And alone in the morgue, he sank to the ground and wept in silence.


	3. Chapter 3

He was in the bureau’s prison center now.

Before, he had found himself unwilling to leave the proximity of his body. As though it were still connected to him in some twisted and despairing way.

But like any body, it did not last.

When the grate was closed the switch was flipped- and as the fires burned the chamber, Yuusei felt nothing.

He had no body now. What remained was nothing but ashes, and those ashes were gone. And yet as he had wandered the facilities around him, he could not leave. He could not even slightly feel whatever pull would make him move on, and the fact was he had yet to see any others ‘like him’.

To put it bluntly it was an annoyance. To put it down with emotions however…

It was despairing.

As he had wandered however, it seemed as though something was guiding him, albeit distantly. Something not tied to the spiritual plane, some _one_  who still had yet to forget his name.

Someone who, after wandering row upon row of cells, he would find curled in the corner of ‘Solitary’.

“ _…Kiryu…_ ”

The guards always muttered when they passed. After his death, Kiryu had been frozen in shock, unable to move. When he’d recovered however- when the doors had opened again, he’d lashed out in an instant. He charged forward despite his arms being bound, despite having nothing but his teeth to fight with. He devolved into a beast of rage and hatered and in the end for the safety of others- for the safety of even himself- they brought him here.

Here where he now could not move his arms, breathing rapidly, eyes wide with anger and insanity both. Muttering curses under his breath, triggered whenever the officers came.

“ _Kiryu…_ ” In the end as he floated in the small  cell his voice could not be heard. Not as he called his friend’s name, nor as he attempted in vain to ask him to stop building this dark desire that was forming before his eyes. The murderous gaze he fixed toward the door moved through Yuusei’s being and toward what officers came with rations of food and if not for the unrelenting desire to destroy who brought them he would have likely ignored them completely.

Instead however he stewed, ever waiting, ever watching…

His eyes never seeing the one he sought to avenge. Never seeing the despair his own words caused, never hearing the quiet pleas to just  _accept_  what had happened.

“ _You’ll only kill yourself…_ ” Yuusei whispered, ever hopeful that somehow the barrier of sound between them would finally break. “ _Kiryu… This wasn’t what I wanted._ ”

“Kill them all… I’ll kill them all…”

“ _Kiryu…_ ”

“All of them, all of them, they’LL ALL PAY…”

“ _Please, don’t do this…_ ”

The next day, they ‘forgot’ to feed him. It was the same on the day following. And the one after that. And as he watched his friend slowly starve the gleam in Kiryu’s eyes refused to fade. The hungering stare of a caged wolf, set in sunken eyes and sallow skin. Food came on the fifth day, following a mild snarl of rage from a newer chief of the facility but as Yuusei discovered in shock Kiryu ignored it. His eyes remained trained on the door, waiting…

“They’ll come in _,_ ” he hissed to himself, eyes sunken and almost glazed in desperation. “ _They’ll come in_ …”

They would have to enter when he refused food too long, wouldn’t they? To simply let a prisoner die wasn’t something they could get away with was it?

Kiryu apparently thought as much.

But Yuusei, ever floating at the corner of the room merely shook his head in growing fear. “ _No Kiryu,_ ” he called out to him, tears coming to the corners of his eyes. “ _They won’t._ ”

And once again, he did not hear him.


	4. Chapter 4

He was still alive.

His eyes were, if anything, held open simply for the fact that they had been held there for so long, frozen in place as he stared blankly at the door.

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed since the ‘last meal’ came in. The plate was changed every day to keep from going bad, and overall he never counted anyways. It had been perhaps two months since he’d come to the cell before that happened however. Two months since Yuusei had…

Kiryu gave a shuddering breath as rage filled his thoughts once again, eyes never once moving from the door. Bastards… All of them, monsters, scum of the earth, that was what they were! They called him trash? The others trash? They  _killed_  him… Point blank, no chance to even fight whoever held the gun.

At least he’d given the officer from back then that small ‘honor’, hadn’t he?

…

…He was dying. They going to do anything but mindlessly swap plates he realized, and yet he no longer had the strength to do more than breathe, if only weakly. They wouldn’t open that door. And by this point, what strength would he have to fight them? To tear their throats from their necks, make them  _bleed_  as he had…

Make them…

Make them all…

‘ **You seek retribution…?** ’ he heard someone ask, and without thinking he opened his dry mouth to speak.

“Yes.”

Unbeknownst to him another presence in the room looked to him in shock, but for the moment Kiryu merely listened to the voice that this presence could not hear.

‘ **You seek power?** ’

“Yes.”

The other in the room began to shake his head, and still the disembodied voice continued.

‘ **You do not fear death?** ’

“I do not.”

‘ **You have no purpose in life?** ’

“…But one.”

‘ **Then what is it you would fight for?** ’ the shade demanded, as though to reconsider its plot. ‘ **What is it you would travel to the depths of hell for?** ’ Silence. And then…

“…Yuusei…”

Perhaps the spirit in the room thought he had been heard at last, for as he stared to him he called his name, almost in panic.

And that was when the ghost noticed the shadow in the room. Looming, near invisible in form, almost swallowing Kiryu in its presence.

He could not hear what this shadow said however.

‘ **I can give you the power to reclaim this spirit,** ’ the being told Kiryu blankly. ‘ **If you only do as I ask.** ’

“…You can bring him back to life..?” he asked, Yuusei paling in the corner of the room.

“ _No… No, Kiryu! Don’t listen to them!_ ” the spirit cried. “ _KIRYU!_ ”

“If I do what you say… You’ll bring him back to life..?”

‘ **I will give you the power to do this and then some.** ’ the shadow pressed on. ‘ **Simply accept what I ask of you.** ’

Kiryu did not hesitate, and a cold wind seemed to pass over the room as he opened his mouth to speak, eyes slowly craning upward.

“ _Kiryu..!_ ”

“What is it you ask?”

“ _KIRYU!_ ”

‘ **Become my servant.** ’

“ ** _KIRYU!!_** ”

“Agreed.”

And in an instant Kiryu’s body seemed to snap, stiffening as it took one last breath. His eyes closed over and the shadow faded…

Only for them to snap open and release such a wind that the door blew back from the cell.

Yuusei’s eyes widened, the spirit staring in horror as his friend moved to stand. As Kiryu began walking with renewed strength from the cell, not caring that there were now shouts coming toward it, or that officers would be arriving in an instant. And with no other choice in his mind the ghost followed, almost immediately coming to the conclusion of what Kiryu’s goals were.

The man who had fired the gun that day.

The one who was now chief of the building’s officers.

“ _Kiryu please!_ ” he cried, floating before the man only for his friend to walk right through him. “ _Please, don’t do this..!_ ”

However just as before he could not see him, instead walking forward in a half daze to the security chief’s office. Just as before he could not hear him, only listening to the murmurs of the Earthbound God speaking to him from beyond.

And as the door to the office blasted open the chief stood, incredulous. Shouting at the intruder with rage, demanding explaination and more importantly cooperation.

The chill in the air increased.

And as Yuusei’s spirit overed at the side a wash of darkness filled the room, Kiryu’s body immediately filled with strength and reformed and refitted in robes of black and blue.

“You killed someone very close to me,” Kiryu began with a manic grin, his eyes black and wide with expectation. “And now… I’ll make you the sacrifice that brings him back..!”

“ _Kiryu…_ ”

 _No_ …


	5. Chapter 5

As though he were rooted to the spot despite his weightlessness he stood, floating inches above the ground and crying out to his friend.

“ _Don’t do this!_ ” he shouted, only for a duel to come into effect. “ _Kiryu! This will only make it worse,_ _please..!_ ”

He was ignored and in an instant monsters began to appear, grey-skinned beings with nothing but themselves to rely upon. ‘Infernity’, Kiryu called them, and Yuusei found himself looking to them with confused eyes.

“ _…These aren’t your cards,_ ” he protested quietly, unaffected by the deteriorating room around them. Windows shattered under the force of the monster’s blows but all he could do was stare, shaking his head. “ _This isn’t you..! Kiryu..!_ ” It wasn’t even ‘him’ as he was in the cell. Not even ‘him’ as he was ‘that night’! This was worse, far worse, and if he could only _hear_ him! “ _KIRYU!_ ”

A field spell came into play- the scene seemed to change and as it did so he felt himself grow heavy if it were possible, ill even. He found himself clutching his chest, weakly slouching over and looking up to the duel occurring around him. He couldn’t tell what was happening- Suddenly sounds were becoming blurred, whispers echoing in the back of his mind. And as he grabbed his head, covering his ears, Kiryu’s cries for attack and death rang through his every being.

“ _Stop…_ ” he pleaded, shaking his head. He felt… Pain. So much pain all at once, something he hadn’t even felt for so long. “ _Stop..!_ ” he repeated, nails digging into his scalp as he held his head. “ _STOP THIS, KIRYU!_ ”

So many things happened in that instant. He wasn’t sure which part of what he saw was true or not. There had been two monsters on the field, he rememered that. But when Kiryu had given the order to tribute them as summons, they moved; they charged the already shocked security officer whom he recognized as his killer. They grabbed his arms, and pulled him taught, lifting the terrified man into the air. And as he screamed, his own voice dulled in his ears, far overpowered by his friend’s words.

‘what are you doing?’ the man cried, looking down at the crazed duelist below. ‘what are you doing to me!?’

“Didn’t you hear me?” Kiryu laughed, the scenery around them glowing a chilling blue. Yuusei’s cries echoed through the air, telling him to stop, cancel the match, anything but this,  _anything but this-_!

If he could have just heard him for an instant…

“You’re going to be the sacrifice that brings him back,” his friend cackled, eyes wide and filled with dark anticipation. “THIS DUEL IS ALREADY OVER..! HahAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!! NOW!” he roared, holding a single card upward as the blue around them intensified. “SUMMON HIM..!  _ **CCAPAC-APU**_!”

He did not hear what happened next. He did not see what happened next.

Instead he felt a sharp snap tear through his being, as though to grasp him from the inside out. And as his vision grew dark so did the pain intensify, shattering his every being, yet in the instant it came leaving him completely silent. His senses cut.

The pain faded.

And in the release of power that occurred in that moment, there remained nothing of the facility but a vast, still smoking crater, at the center of which the office once stood. Kiryu was entirely unharmed despite this- despite his arena sinking multiple stories, and despite the rubble around him.

In fact, he did not even pay such wreckage any mind, merely taking a few steps toward the crater to peer in. His eyes skimmed the wreckage in an instant- and in the back of his mind a voice seemed to direct them toward one spot in particular.

And soon enough he found himself with a grin upon his face, running toward the spot to give the first genuine laugh he’d made in a small number of months. “Yuusei…” he laughed, running toward the figure at such speed that he found himself almost exhausted coming toward it. “Yuusei..” The grin fell, hesitant. This…

But this was not Yuusei’s body, his mind protested, looking upon the black skinned being that lay prone before him. This was not what he’d looked like..!

‘ _Aaah, but he had no body anymore, correct..?_ ’ the god ‘Ccapac’ offered in response. His body had been taken away after all, burned to nothing but ashes…

He couldn’t come back in the body he had, there wasn’t one. So then Ccapac had created one- there was no other way, right?

With that, Kiryu seemed to be assured. However nothing cemented the worth of his decision more than when blue eyes slowly opened up to peer in his direction, a weak but ever familiar voice hoarsely entering the air.

“ ** _…Kiryu…?_** ”

“Yuu… Yuusei…” He’d done it. He fell to his knees, laughing brokenly and quietly as he grinned. He’d done it…

And in the end, he had no idea just what damnation he had brought to his friend.


	6. Chapter 6

As his senses returned he felt heavy. Not in the way he had during the duel, when a pressure pushed solidly against him however, but rather as though he had… Form. Substance.

As his senses cleared, he realized that this was not entirely an illusion. He could feel himself pressing against gravel and worn ground, feel the texture of the stone under his fingers- real fingers..!

“ ** _…_** ” He was…

Alive?

But then why wasn’t he breathing? Well, now that he was thinking of it he was. But why hadn’t he been breathing before-

As he opened his eyes his vision slowly cleared, moving from dull black to blurred colours solidifying into shapes and surroundings. And among them he could see one in particular begin to clear, garbed in black and blue with eyes forever changed by what deals he had made. This-

Could he hear him now? Could he perhaps, regardless of what had happened..??

“ ** _…Kiryu…?_** ”

In the instant he spoke, a grin appeared on Kiryu’s face. An honest grin, a relieved one, if not slightly tainted with some darker thing he could not recognize. And as his friend slowly came forward he laughed, tears dotting his eyes as he stared almost in disbelief. “Yuu… Yuusei,” he finally said, coming to his knees to reach out toward him. “You’re here… You’re actually… Here…”

“ _ **Gh…**_ ” With difficulty he moved to sit up, only to find his arm grabbed by Kiryu, the man helping him up himself.

“Here..! Let me help!” he insisted, his words laced with the same broken and disbelieving laughter from before. “Let me help, Yuusei…”

“ ** _Nhg… Kiryu,_** ” he began, stumbling somewhat as he grimaced. His eyes fell to the arm Kiryu had taken to help him up, and briefly they widened with shock. Black. His skin was pitch black, marked with lines of blue- his entire body was like this he realized swiftly, eyes moving over himself in growing unease. Black and blue, nothing else. He swallowed. Ignore it, he told himself. This was his  _chance_. His chance to say all those things that Kiryu couldn’t hear before, his chance to break him from this path he was already so deeply set upon- This was it!

“ _ **Where are we?**_ ” he instead heard himself ask, his eyes refusing to widen with the shock he experienced in response. “ _ **…What happened?**_ ” his voice continued to ask, Yuusei himself internally shaking his head in disbelief.

No.

 _No_!

This wasn’t what he wanted to say! He wanted to tell him how he had always been there- He wanted to say how he’d always been watching, calling!

Why was he saying these things?

“We’re nowhere important,” Kiryu answered, holding him close. With how tall he’d been in death Kiryu’s head easily rested over Yuusei’s own, his friend slumped against him in what was not in fact weakness but shock. “It’s okay now, Yuusei! You were dead,” he continued, as though such a thing could be mentioned so casually, “But it’s alright now! Because someone helped me bring you back, Yuusei… Even though your body was gone, they helped bring you back!” he laughed, Yuusei’s slowly growing expression of horror and fear unnoticed from under Kiryu’s own visage of maddened cheer. “Isn’t that wonderful?”

He could hear whispers in the back of his mind, cackling, taunting whispers. Whispers of threats against all he knew, whispers of hopelessness for what now occurred.

Warnings of just whose ‘body’ he now shared.

He heard himself agree with Kiryu, and inside he wanted to scream. It wasn’t ‘wonderful’ at all..! It was terrifying, horrifying- So many people had died, so much around them had been destroyed, it was nothing but miserable..!

“You must be cold,” Kiryu was saying now, unclasping the cloak and poncho from around him. “Here, wear this…”

“ _ **…Aah.**_ ” He could do nothing but nod dully as the cloth was placed around him, his eyes staring downward.

“Nothing bad will ever happen again,” he was assured. “Don’t worry. Everything is okay…”

“ ** _Of course._** ”

He could do nothing but become a prisoner within his own being.

‘Take care of our body’ he thought he heard someone say as Kiryu again pulled him close, repeating assurances of destruction for those who had brought this upon them, of eternity in their own ‘perfect world’.

And soon after those words…

‘ ** _I’ll be making sure of that._** ’


	7. Chapter 7

Old Momentum was not a place he had ever expected to travel to, yet nonetheless that was where they went.

While Kiryu had held him close a man had approached from the distance. He wore robes of similar appearance to Kiryu’s own, and introduced himself as ‘Demak’, ‘disciple, and servant to the Earthbound God Cusillu’.

A ‘Dark Signer’, just as Kiryu was.

Then, what was he? he wanted to ask. However in his fear to speak he kept his mouth closed, unwilling to question despite what he did not know. Demak asked for them to follow. Told them that the answers were near…

In ‘Old Momentum’.

When he arrived, there was another. ‘Rudger Godwin’, brother to the director he had seen when he first ‘awoke’ from death. A tall man with again similar robes, bearing the mark of the spider, ‘Uru’. 

And Rudger, rather than only briefly acknowledging him as Demak had, addressed him immediately. “The God Ccapac-Apu…” he murmured, eyes widening with what appeared to be a mix of awe and terror all at once. “One of our Gods has gained solid form..?” he asked, and from the side Demak nodded.

“The God Ccapac has created a pact with his chosen- the revival of another human through his power.”

If Rudger caught the fact that Demak had implied what stood before them did not currently bear the consciousness of a ‘god’, he did not act like it. Instead he stiffened, bowing as the two newcomers stared in shock.

“What are you doing..?” Kiryu demanded, looking to the the man in confusion. “Why are you bowing?”

He didn’t even try to speak this time- he merely opened his mouth somewhat in shock. And in an instant his voice entered the air under the will of Ccapac, Yuusei himself listening with an internal grimace.

”’ ** _Ccapac-Apu’s powers have become mine,_** ” the deity explained, easily sharing the truth without sharing the consequences of it. “ ** _In that sense, we are the ‘same’._** ”

Kiryu’s response was that of shock, looking to him almost as though he had been betrayed. “The same?!” That was right-

Realize it, Yuusei attempted to shout- he wasn’t the only one here..! He wasn’t able to speak-

…Aah, but that in itself made the truth impossible to reveal didn’t it? He wasn’t able to speak. Not of this. “ _ **It’s still me,**_ ” ‘he’ assured Kiryu, giving a small smile. “ _ **However, for that reason many others of the Dark Signers will find a God’s name more appropriate.**_ ” …Which would both tell Kiryu that it was ‘him’ while simoultaneously giving an excuse to be called by Ccapac’s name. And Ccapac said nothing more than this.

Nothing more needed to be said.

“Forgive us, Ccapac-sama,” Rudger declared in the meantime, holding his head in a slightly bowed position before the ‘god’. “However we did not realize we would become host to your full presence. We do not have a proper room set aside for you.”

He didn’t want a room though! he wanted to shout. He didn’t want any of this!

…But instead… “ ** _I would not expect you to have known- I will share with Kiryu for the time being,_** ” he ‘decided’, nonetheless sending waves of distaste down Yuusei’s spine. “ _ **Do what you will.**_ ”

Rudger nodded. “Very well. Ccapac-sama,” he continued, Yuusei internally cringing with each use of the name, “‘Kiryu’. Follow me.”

With that he turned, leading them away- at the same moment, he gave a short nod to Demak, who took his own leave. And in the silence as they walked through the hall, Rudger spoke again.

“Once I have shown you to your room for the time being, I will find a location to properly renovate for your presence here Ccapac-sama,” he explained, Yuusei merely keeping silent as he stared dully at his surroundings. Of course Rudger would make moves to do so after all- if he saw him as the very god that had revived Kiryu for its own ends after all, sharing rooms would not suffice- not if the impatience rumbling in the back of his mind was any sign. “Additionally, Demak will find robes of more proper worth for you,” the man told them, Kiryu and Yuusei both looking to the cloak he still held closed around him.

…He would admit that he needed clothing, yes. “ _ **..Aah,**_ ” he responded shortly, not looking up.

They came to a series of doors, and at one marked with a symbol identical to the one now gracing Kiryu’s arm, Rudger stopped. “This is to be your room as the one who bears the mark of the Giant,” he explained. “I have no doubts that your god shall explain the rest. Until then,” he continued, bowing somewhat to Yuusei and stepping back to allow them entry to the room, “Rest- we will converse upon our strategies later.”

Both nodded, though in his own case it was only grudgingly so. He did not like any bit of what he felt here, and though a part of him felt as though it were the closest to home he would ever have he felt almost nauseous. As both he and Kiryu entered the room, this feeling increased.

It was sparse- there had been none to reside in it after all, and no way to tell who would inhabit it. However compared to the cell that both he and Kiryu had spent so much time within, and even to the home they one had in the more outer-lying reaches of Satellite, it was a palace.

“This…” Kiryu laughed, walking into the room with wide eyes. “This is ours..!” he cried, turning to grab Yuusei’s shoulders with a grin before pulling him close. “All ours..!” He pulled back, shaking his head. “Can you believe this, Yuusei..? It’s…”

Wrong..! It was wrong, all wrong-!

“ _ **Aah,**_ ” he instead said in apparent agreement, another false smile forced upon his face. “ _ **I’m sure that there will be more to come as well.**_ ” Kiryu’s response had been to grin with almost cruel expectation, before exploring the room and all that came with it. Not long after, Yuusei himself would find himself grudgingly curling up on his side on the bed, leaving Kiryu to do what he wanted in the building while his friend rested.

He had never been so grateful for the ability and need to sleep. While he was not so naive as to pray this were all a dream after all, it would at least give him a slight reprieve from the nightmare that was now reality.


	8. Chapter 8

“What is your name?”

The question admittedly came to him as a surprise when Demak asked it. They were travelling to Neo Domino, as it seemed. And though he had protested, surprising even himself when the words passed his lips with no trouble, Demak merely countered them with calm logic. ‘they will not see you,’ he had told him. ‘for you, and anything you consider yours, is no longer of this world.’

At the moment they were in a helicopter, Yuusei looking through the window as Demak carried them upward.

The man repeated his question. “Your name?” he asked, voice strangely calm rather than annoyed as one would expect from any other, nor was it the tense if not apprehensive tone he could expect from Rudger.

…It put him at ease strangely enough, and in a sense seemed to quiet the mutters in the back of his mind. “ _ **…Fudou Yuusei,**_ ” he finally answered, staring out the window. And after a few moments of silence, he turned. " _ **Why did you care to ask?**_ ”

“Because you are not Ccapac-Apu,” the man responded plainly, Yuusei’s eyes snapping open in surprise at the blunt statement. “Your body is formed of his power and being. However your mind is not. As such, I will address you and treat you as is proper; by your name, and as the temple of a god. The Earthbound as a whole stand equal among each other, albeit separate in a sense. To address your God would be just as disrespectful as calling you by its name would be; it is not my place to call upon them.”

Yuusei stared in response to that, before looking to the side. “ _ **.** **..Aah,**_ ” he murmured. “ _ **I see.**_ ”

“So who were you to Kiryu then?” Demak continued, the spirit looking up in confusion.

“ _ **..I… What do you mean by that?**_ ”

“It was a prison facility he was in. His marker as Dark Signer has followed that pattern rather than the traditional line,” he continued. “Either your marker was erased when you became one with the God, or you were never alive to begin with.”

Yuusei fell silent for a moment, swallowing. “ _ **What is the date?**_ ” he asked after a moment. Demak told him. And in response, Yuusei bowed his head. “ _ **I died almost half a year ago then,**_ ” he realized, eyes half closed in thought. “ _ **…I didn’t realize it was that long.**_ ”

“Time is different for the dead. Even the Dark Signers, despite passing the veil, cannot comprehend it.”

“ _ **You know a lot about this.**_ ”

“As I should. I was raised for this role,” Demak continued. “I was sacrificed to the God Cusillu, who chose me as his disciple. By nature the Dark Signers are set apart from even those known as shaman, or mediums. Those people have connections to the dead, yes- but only the Dark Signer experiences it in this way. It’s quite different from yourself as well,” he continued. “…As real as your body is, you are still considered separate from the living.”

Was he? Demak had indeed implied that when he told him his cloak and body would be invisible to those in the city, but… “ _ **How is this?**_ ”

“There are a few names for spirits of your ‘class’. Demon is the most common one,” he began, easily catching the grimace Yuusei gave in response. “However I prefer the term that you’ve ironically been avoiding. ‘God’. Though you’ve evidently decided yourself undeserving of both.”

“ _ **I never wanted to be either one.**_ ”

“No one quite wants or knows what their end fate is.” Was that so?

He stared out the window at the city below, the city he had once dreamed of seeing with his friends one day when the separation finally ended. The city he would now enter as a shade. “ _ **…Could anyone have even somewhat predicted this though?**_ ” he asked, not turning from the window.

Demak was silent for a bit at that, directing the helicopter to land somewhere near the edge of the city. Neo Domino had passed beneath them almost like a dream, a hazy existence that he had never imagined would exist. After all the times he and the others had stared across the water at this place,  _wondering_ …

The door opened and he was allowed out, clutching his cloak close. “Sometimes the Gods have plans of such worth that even the imagination cannot perceive what will occur,” he told him, placing a hand on the spirit’s shoulder. “Now. Follow me,” he continued, Yuusei watching in somewhat disturbed curiosity as the man’s clothing seemed to warp into something more similar to those of the city’s residents. Even his eyes seemed to return to a state of normallcy, albeit clinging to the somewhat eerie stare they gave before. He motioned for Yuusei to follow, and so he did. “We will find a place which can tailor clothing to your size.”

He nodded. And as they began to make their way toward the city he kept close behind Demak, clutching his cloak and looking around him nervously. However not a single person turned to look his way. Not a single one batted an eye, and eventually he managed to stand a little straighter as he walked, albeit with his eyes purposefully held away from anything reflective. He didn’t like this face he bore- not at all.

In the end they found the store with ease, and in the end, Yuusei chose not to question just how they were paying for what they did. And as it was in the end, he barely had any say in what was taken from the building regardless.

Gods were particular about all their choices after all.

As it seemed, Ccapac was no exception.


	9. Chapter 9

He didn’t completely hate these robes, he would admit. They weren’t black like those of the Dark Signers; close to it, yes.

But not quite.

And… He admitted that they were comfortable at least. He didn’t know what they were made of, but whatever it was it was soft. He kept part of the cloak Kiryu had given him as well; somehow, Kiryu himself received a new one. The cloak that Yuusei had in the meantime would be closed around to hang more like a poncho, hiding many of the marks on his skin. 

More importantly however, what he liked about these robes was that they were not those of the Dark Signers. They were different. And while he had only barely been allowed to speak while Demak explained the various bits of tradition going into the robes thanks to Ccapac’s influence, it could have been far worse, he told himself.

If anything what he hated were merely the accented blue upon them, which glowed with ‘his’ power. The silver that hung around his neck and now on his ears, which when he attempted to remove seemed to find its way back on his being regardless. He couldn’t get rid of any of it, apparently.

So in the end, he stopped trying. Kiryu and the two others of the Old Momentum building’s hideaway were kept surprisingly busy during the few days he’d spent there, though he had suspicions as to why that was. As he explored the building, he found many other rooms as well however, finding ways to at least pass the time by without hearing a ‘ccapac-sama’ from Rudger, or having to hear himself encourage the dark descent he was now being forced to watch his friend fall into.

There was a kitchen, for one- everyone of them had to eat, even himself as he’d discovered with surprise later on. Demak had seemed relatively unsurprised however, and as the one how took it upon himself to cook for the group he had also been the one to tell him this. If anything it seemed that the only thing standing between himself and reality was his visibility. Everything else was the same.

He could shower if he wanted or needed to. In fact, they were quite effective in acting as a distraction to what was around him. If he was hungry, he could eat if he wanted to. There were things here that in life, he would have had to fight to the teeth for.

And he tried not to think of that. He tried to banish it from mind, trying to ignore the dark chuckling and whispering in the back of his mind. He could speak his own words to Kiryu if he avoided what he wanted to say, as he found. If he avoided the matter of what had happened to him, if he avoided the topic of what was right or wrong about this. Topics such as dueling… Such as d-wheels, just small things- those were safe.

He held those conversations close- he didn’t know how long it would be after all, before the smiles stopped.

And soon enough it seemed that his time in the room with Kiryu would come to an end. His friend grinned as he stood before the door that had been remade with the glyph of the giant over it, the decoration around it more ornate than that of Kiryu’s own. It made him more than uncomfortable of course- however, as per Ccapac’s will, he did not show this, instead holding an expression of near emotionless.

“It’s done..!” Kiryu told him with a grin, moving to open the door. “Look..! All of this is for you, Yuusei! No one else!”

He couldn’t see much from just the doorway to be honest- however he nodded nonetheless. As he stepped inside he took in his surroundings, standing in silence for a few moments. “ _ **…Kiryu,**_ ” he eventually began, his friend still grinning.

“Mm? Do you like it?” he asked with a short laugh. “I bet the bed is even more comfortable than mine..!”

…That was almost entirely likely. However in the end, rather than allow his words to be twisted he nodded. “ _ **Aah** **,**_ ” he instead 'decided', not moving as he heard the door begin to close.

“Great! I’ll be back later- Poke around a bit!” Kiryu told him, shutting it with a laugh. “It’s yours after all!”

Aah. This was all…

There was no doubt in his mind that the room had been created for what Rudger had considered a ‘God’, and as it seemed, Kiryu had gone along with it with nothing more than the intent to make ‘new life’ a ‘heaven’ for him.

As he looked at what was in the room it felt as though all the events of the past two weeks and then some were piling upon themselves into a weight of a thousand tonnes. As though all the fabrics in the room, the candles, the furnishings in the dim blue-lit room dedicated to a god of darkness, were growing still more imposing and large.

It was not like saying he was ‘dead’. He had accepted that long ago, and he had accepted the consequences. If he could have just kept Kiryu from what had happened, if all of that could have been reversed, he would have gladly picked death again.

As Yuusei fell to his knees however, it suddenly struck him that he was so far from the case that there would be no return for him. There would be no chance of even becoming a mere ‘ghost’ again. He opened his mouth to scream however and nothing came out but a quiet, almost rasping breath of air. And as he opened his eyes to look upward he trembled, knowing exactly why that was.

Even the right to cry out in pain had been taken from him it seemed, tears gathering and falling down the side of his face as he bowed his head. Where he could have at least spoken but not be heard, shown expression but not be seen…

Despite the inability to scream he could not separate himself from that emotion. A lack of sound was not enough to stop the feeling of insignificance and uselessness crushing him now. He held his head in his hands, and for the longest time he wept, the ‘smallness’ he felt slowly becoming reflected over his being. Causing thick robes to alter themselves to his size, and the cloak he favored to cover him completely. And in the end, rather than move from the spot he continued to sit there, curled up within the cloth with eyes closed tightly, tears staining black fabric. He would fall asleep in this way, now shrunken form almost comfortably surrounded in the fabrics.

As to whether he would be there when morning came, he almost hoped that would be the case.

At least then, he decided in the end, it would mean that he knew what he had done whilst he slept.


	10. Chapter 10

When he woke up, he was in the bed.

“ _ **…**_ ” The bed was physically comfortable, but despite the layers of cloth felt horribly cold. It suited the room, he supposed as he stared across to the wall. And quite frankly, he never wanted to be in this room, let alone this bed, again.

There was displeasure ringing in the back of his mind with these thoughts, and as he closed his eyes and ground his teeth he ignored it, hopping out of the bed only to stumble.

“ _ **Wh-h!**_ ” With one hand still on the matress and blanket he shook, tripping back over the hem of his robes and staring at the floor. Well. This was… Much closer than he’d expected to be honest, and in fact-

He lifted a hand, the poncho covering it completely despite it never passing his wrist before. And as he slid the cloth past them his eyes widened, the spirit looking himself over in shock. He was…  _Small_.

If he looked at nothing at his hands he would guess the size of a small child- with the mirror the room held however, a mirror that he was now dwarfed by completely, he realized that small child was putting it quite lightly. He stood just a little shorter than three feet- the poncho hung a few inches from the ground as a result in fact, though somehow it seemed that the rest of what he wore had followed after in size. His voice had not changed- however with this size…

With this size, no one could do anything but look down to him, right? Even before he was still shorter than all three who were there, and yet it felt as though they did nothing but look ‘up’. That illusion had to be impossible now, didn’t it?

He wanted out. Out of this room, out of this place, though he knew the latter was quite impossible. But at least with this he told himself, he could hide. Hide away from any who came looking, away from the things that reminded him even more of what had become of him. He couldn’t make Kiryu smile honestly anymore. Not in this state, not as a ghost- and frankly, if he could just find a spot to avoid it all until the end he would gladly take it, cowardly as it was.

His size in this moment made that easy. In the kitchen, the cupboards had ample space for someone of his size, and, avoiding any with spiders in them lest he unwittingly tell Rudger of his location, he managed to find a relatively empty one to slip into. He closed the door behind him and found himself wrapped in darkness aside from his glow. It was a strangely calming form of darkness however- almost warm despite all that was happening, or so he told himself as he curled up under the poncho.

Nothing could find him here, he told himself as he closed his eyes.

Nothing. And then-

“Ah- A child..?”

“ _ **Mn-**_ ”

The cupboard doors opened and instead of Kiryu, Rudger, or even Demak, he was met with the face of a woman. And as he stared up, mouth hanging somewhat open in shock, the woman’s face seemed to soften. “Hello there,” she greeted, coming down to her knees. “And who are you?”

“ _ **Mn… Yuusei,**_ ” he finally answered, the woman looking rather taken aback by the maturity of the voice.

Nonetheless she seemed to take it at least somewhat in stride, smiling. “Yuusei?” she repeated, nodding. “I see. I was told there were three other Dark Signers aside from myself- I didn’t expect to see anyone else here, however.”

“ _ **…I am… A spirit,**_ ” he answered slowly, carefully choosing his words lest he find them stolen from him.

“A spirit. I see.” The woman continued to smile calmly, the darkness of her eyes somewhat subdued by its warmth. “Well then, Yuusei. You may call me ‘Misty’- I am the Dark Signer to Ccarayhua, the lizard,” she explained. Not long after she paused, before almost hesitantly continuing. “…Are you lonely in there?” she asked, seeming to think of him as a child despite the very much adult-like voice.

Yuusei did not answer, again fearing his words would be twisted, but also wondering what they would be twisted  _into_. This woman had only just recently joined the Dark Signers- like Kiryu, only without the already darkening descent into madness that his friend had started with. He did not want to know if and how that would change.

He did not want to know how his words would affect this, or how Ccapac would wish for his words to affect it. If he said he was not lonely she would likely leave him alone to hide, which Ccapac’s mutterings were clearly against.

Yet if he said otherwise, it was likely she would continue to give him company- which Ccapac also appeared to fairly unwilling to do.

His silence in itself seemed to be taken as an answer however, for although his face had been kept quite deliberately blank it seemed the lack of any detail in his eyes made him appear fairly depressive as a result. Without warning he found himself gently pulled out from the cupboard, eyes widening in evident shock as Misty held him close.

With a finger she brushed a few hairs from his face, before setting him upon the counter. “You have a sad face,” she observed quietly, briefly closing her eyes over as she spoke. “It doesn’t suit someone so young.”

“ _ **Aah…**_ ” He almost protested the comment toward his age, but in the end decided against it, merely nodding.

As a result, Misty continued. “I had a little brother before coming here,” she told him, the mutterings in the back of Yuusei’s mind quieting to listen. “He was about… This tall?” she gestured, her hand coming somewhat below her shoulders. “He hadn’t hit his growth spurt yet,” she chuckled. “He didn’t mind it though…” Misty sighed, leaning back against the counter. “You remind me of when he was younger- my brother… He had special abilities. He could see things that weren’t there, and talk to them. And sometimes even make things move. ‘Psychic’. So when he was little, and these things first began to happen, he would always hide…”

Aah… “ _ **What happened to him?**_ ” he asked, only to stiffen as Misty’s eyes immediately filled with rage.

“Murder…” she hissed, clutching the counter behind her and grinding her teeth. “He was murdered by the one he looked to as his mentor!” she snarled lowly. “He’d met someone who could help with his abilities… Someone who would help him control them and all that  _woman_  did for him was toss him aside like he was WORTHLESS!”

Yuusei stared, unsure of just what to say. Unsure of if he should have said anything even, though in the end that didn’t matter apparently. Misty calmed herself and sighed, holding her arms and shaking her head.

“Forgive me,” she asked. “I was out of line. You had nothing to do with what happened.”

“ _ **Aah- It’s fine,**_ ” he responded honestly. “ _ **…I’m sorry for your loss,**_ ” he added, bowing his head.

Unfortunately however, what followed was not of his own intentions. “ _ **…Now that you are here however, you have been given the opportunity for vengeance,**_ ” he heard himself continue, his face again refusing to move with his emotions, reflecting calm impassivity as opposed to fear and misery. “ _ **Soon enough, the time will come when that woman will appear again- realizing what you must do when that time comes is nothing to be ashamed of.**_ ”

…No…

No, no, NO he wanted to scream, but instead he watched as Misty responded with a smile, seeming relieved. “I see,” she answered, nodding. “Hmhm. You’re quite wise little spirit.” No! There was nothing wise about these words..! “Would you like to accompany me for a short bit? I have yet to acquaint myself with the remainder of this building- no doubt you know more of it neh?” No…

Why did he have to be made to say those things… Why…

With his eyes deliberately turned to the ground he said nothing, merely appearing to nod. Again he was caught somewhat off guard by the woman, who then picked him up from the table and into her arms with relative ease. Balancing him almost entirely on one arm she moved to leave the room, smiling. “I must thank you for that. The others, though they are kind enough, do not seem quite so sociable.”

…That was hardly surprising, he would admit mentally. As it were.

“Have you met them?” she was continuing, looking to him with a smile. “If this is your home, then you would have surely at least seen them, neh?”

Before he could even ponder a response to this, footsteps came over the air, the two looking up as Rudger and Kiryu appeared.

“Ah- Yuusei!” Kiryu exclaimed, though he appeared less than pleased to see precisely where he was. Ignoring the look from Rudger concerning the use of the name was quite easy as a result no doubt, though all the same he was fairly certain that Rudger would be talking to him later…

The mutterings in his mind told him as much. “Misty!” Rudger almost choked in the meantime, looking to her with obvious incredulity. “Do you know who you are carrying?”

She blinked. “Is there something else I have not been made aware of?”

Rudger stiffened, lowering his head somewhat to level a glare to the woman. “You carry in your arms now the physical form of Ccapac-Apu..! A God!”

“A go-” Misty stiffened, looking down to Yuusei almost in horror. “Forgive me,” she immediately continued, closing her eyes and bowing her head, but otherwise not moving. “I did not realize! However-“

He was about to protest in the woman’s defense at that, but quite abruptly alternate terms were coming from his lips; and while he would later grimly admit that he did not mind the result of what ‘he’ said this time around, that fact in itself brought feelings of disgust.

“ _ **She offered to carry me- I did not refuse.**_ ” The words were blunt, and to the point. If he wanted to be carried, then he could.

It certainly seemed to have Rudger struck relatively silent- after all, if a ‘God’ wished to be carried, however odd it was, then who was he to argue? Kiryu in the meantime had an almost jealous gleam in his eye, immediately gesturing to himself. “So then I could do the same?” Ah… “I can easily carry you if you like, Yuusei..!”

AH- Th-That was fine! (He honestly hadn’t intended to make this a common thing, he simply felt awkward not accepting Misty’s offer really-)

…Unfortunately Ccapac apparently quite liked the idea of being carted around, and Yuusei’s slight stammer of surprise was enough to give him reign again. “ _ **If you wish.**_ ”

That was Misty’s cue it seemed; she gave a short nod, and with no argument the carrier was swapped, Yuusei himself internally wincing at the slight spectacle he was causing. He didn’t want any of this. None of it, none at all!

And as Rudger somehow got over whatever it was he was watching at all, he turned. “We’ll be meeting in a few moments,” he finally told the others, albeit more or less addressing the Dark Signers rather than the ‘god’. “I will prepare a more appropriately sized seat.”

Quite typically, Yuusei would lament to himself later,  _that_  part of this was not something Ccapac would argue against.


	11. Chapter 11

If there was one thing he detested most about meetings, it was the fact that he never remembered anything beyond actually starting them. He would feel a grinding pain in the back of his mind, a pain that he found himself buckling against for the sheer speed of which it came, and then see nothing.

Occasionally he had dim thoughts on the topics of the meetings- a dull recollection of perhaps some small comment Kiryu had made that ‘he’ had responded to, such as the idea of utilizing riding duels in the coming battle with those they called the ‘Signers’. ‘ _Since riding duels only operate with ‘Speed World’ in play, it would be impossible to destroy a god_!’

He had the suspicion that Ccapac purposefully allowed him to hear only those such things during the meetings. As it was, he would typically find himself in his bed afterward, and wanting absolutely nothing to do with the room he would of course leave as soon as he was conscious.

Where he would leave to, however, varied. Following his meeting with Misty, an encounter with either her or Kiryu tended to end with one carrying him off and around the building- given how rarely Misty actually stayed at the building as he discovered however, it would more often than not be Kiryu. Misty, at least, would do nothing more than hold casual conversation with him.

Kiryu’s conversations however, would more often than not always end in a conversation between Ccapac and his friend, pushing him further toward a growing decision to seek out their old friends and judge them as he saw fit. What had happened to them? he had wondered innocently, only for Ccapac to latch on and use it as fuel against his friend. What had happened to them, after he died?

There was no way for him to tell, and he disliked hearing the possibilities that Ccapac would raise in their conversations as Kiryu worked on a D-Wheel he would one day use in the battle against the Signers. And for that reason, and perhaps simply the reason he’d used to try and hide before, he wandered deeper into the building each passing day.

It was perhaps a few weeks after Misty’s rebirth as a Dark Signer that he found one door in particular. It led to what seemed to be a cross-roads bridge, with a trap door in the center.  Peering below through the bars of the railing- bars he would easily fall between if he wasn’t careful, he was met with a brilliant light, a spinning vortex of energies flowing beneath them.

This was momentum, he realized as he looked below, taking a seat and holding one bar in each hand for support. This was all energy that would fuel d-wheels, power homes- most likely in fact, it powered this place in fact.

However it did not feel the same as how it had when he was alive, when he tinkered with duel disks constantly for Team Satisfaction. If anything, back then he didn’t feel anything at all from the small amounts of momentum- the most it ever left was a small ‘sting’ of sorts when he couldn’t find gloves.

…What the momentum felt like now was completely different. He could feel warmth rising up from above, almost lulling him into a sense of calm. Watching the energies swim around, he almost forgot where he was, or even what he was staring at. All he knew was that it was warm. Comforting. _Inviting_ …

There were mutters ever present in the back of his mind, but somehow they did not bring annoyance as they had before. They seemed almost friendly even- gently caressing him, whispering to him…

He didn’t realize he had fallen from the bridge to be honest. He had simply closed his eyes and felt the warmth come closer, increasing in intensity and comfort before it finally surrounded him entirely. Like a blanket of water, or even just wind, blowing at a constant and gentle pace around him.

…It made him feel… Happy, he hesitated to say.

Oh but why bother with even hesitating, he found himself thinking as he sank further into the warm glow, his eyes closed over in contentment. It was so peaceful here after all… He hadn’t even realized how small he’d shrunk down coming into this place, or just how strange it was that he could so easily forget all that had led him to this place.

Why would he? It was just so bright… There were colours streaking past him as he swam through the momentum, and all in all it felt like he would never have to leave. The voices didn’t even mind that themselves. It was true after all, just how wonderful this felt wasn’t it? So calming… So  _invigorating_ …

He could practically taste the energy around him even, and he thought for a moment that he heard someone ask ‘ _why not try_?’

Well he couldn’t possibly eat colour could he? Even so he reached for a streak of red, opening his mouth as wide as he could-

“ _ **Auom…. Mm…**_ ” This was…

…Delicious! ( _well of course it was_ , the voices joyfully scholded) Wonderful! ( _what else would it be_? the voices asked)

What then would the ‘blue’ taste like? Or the green, or the gold? He could dimmly hear a sort of tinging sound in his ears with each bite but somehow he couldn’t bring himself to care, merely floating in the momentum with a horribly uncharacteristic smile on his face. It was just… So nice in here, he thought, quite eagerly reaching for another streak of colour as he swam around the glowing pillar of light.

And around the spinning reverse momentum a thousand screams pealed, each one left unheard- the only sound audible to even the other residents of the Old Momentum building in fact were an odd series of giggles almost- quiet mutterings that could be heard from the inner chamber as one passed the entrance to the bridge.

It was for these sounds that the Dark Signers themselves found themselves looking over the edge of the railing, eventually spotting one tiny blot of black skimming the top of the momentum, the small ‘god’ no longer snatching at any colour that passed him and simply floating around the top with closed eyes and a smile.

“He…”

It was hard to see Yuusei properly from the bridge. And each and everyone of them had their own particular reactions to what they could see as it was. Misty for her part seemed to almost be fighting herself to not smile, the sight of the now yet  _smaller_  spirit appealing quite completely to the ‘cutesey’ side of her. Demak merely seemed to be staring with a raised brow, though given the lack of any hair, that was fairly hard to determine. Rudger himself seemed decidedly more confused, if not quite stunned.

At least until Kiryu’s reaction gained more volume. “…He looks so _happy_ …” he murmured almost in wonder, staring over the edge. “I’ve never seen him so happy!” As the others turned he continued to stare, before casually moving to try and hop over the edge. “I’m going to join him-“

“No, you’ll die again,” Rudger almost casually warned, snatching him by the back of the shirt.

“AH- BUT YUUSEI-!”

“Ccapac-sama.”

“Yuusei is Yuusei!”

“Ccapac-sama.”

“Rudger. Kiryu.” At Demak’s words the barely half-serious argument came to an end, and he continued. “I believe it would nonetheless be in his best interest to fish him out from the momentum.”

…Right. “Hn. I suppose a few spiders will manage,” Rudger decided, squinting down at the still swimming shape below. “Ccapac-sama seems to have shrunken further,” he added, narrowing his eyes in what could well have been a determined attempt not to comment on that.

Even so he moved to open the trap door in the middle of the pit, holding a hand above it and allowing a series of spiders to crawl out from the sleeve. Falling from his hand upon hair thin threads they sank toward the momentum- and in a few silent moments, they met their target.

“ _ **…aaaah-**_ ”

The spiders moved back upward, threads pulling up with them the neck of the poncho Yuusei was so fond of. What they pulled up was indeed smaller however, and to say that anyone was not surprised would have been a lie. Moving from a little under three feet to what was probably only one foot if not less was a fairly impressive feat, albeit not in the way Rudger would likely think a god want to do. What was more curious however was not the almost doll-like size and appearance he had taken however, but rather the sheer _contentment_  that seemed to radiate off from him, the tiny spirit swinging somewhat from Rudger’s spider strings and almost humming to some tune only he really knew.

He was hovering dozens of meters above a pit of typically toxic energy, the size of a doll, and swinging by what could potentially have been his own weight like a pendulum.

But the thing that stood out to them the most, in particular, was the expression that they had never at all seen upon his face. A cheery, calming expression, with a childish smile… One not created by any other force but his own.


	12. 'Jack'

When Yuusei died so did a part of himself, to be honest. There were very few things that could shock him into silence and inaction both.

This, as it seemed, was one of them.  The body had fallen and in an instant he roared, fighting against his bonds and struggling to lash at the officers holding him back.

In the end a shock passed through his body, and his vision closed over.

And when he woke up, only he and Crow remained in that empty lot where Yuusei had died, nothing but a small drying puddle of blood remaining of him.

He hadn’t thought anything like this could ever happen.

When he and Crow left the team he’d thought that perhaps Yuusei would be able to stop Kiryu somehow, but the fact remained that he couldn’t stand what had become of their friend.

And then instead, Yuusei died for him.

He hoped the memory haunted Kiryu until the ends of days. He hoped that memory kept him wide awake and unable to close his eyes without seeing that single instant, that one moment when with a swift shot their friend was gone! He hoped…

…

As he sat in the middle of the theatre, laying across the arms of his chair, he stared up at the exposed stars above. What would happen now? he found himself asking not two months after 'that day', when an explosion of such great proportions that it shook the ground itself occurred. When merely standing upon the roof of a nearby building revealed the damage done, and revealed to him who else was now gone.

What now?

Who else did he have to see die here?  _Who was next_?

He did not get an answer.

But a year after that horrible night of the arrest and shooting, he got another question. “Such a lonely existence you must have,” a voice had chuckled to him, Jack eyeing the source with immediate distaste. The source in question almost looked like a clown, dressed in well kept clothes that easily gave way to the homeland of his ‘guest’.

That, however, was not important.

“ _What would you do if you could leave it behind?_ ”

In the end, the answer had been obvious, hadn’t it?

It would be better if it was out of sight. Better if it was out of mind. If he no longer found himself with the nagging question of how early those he knew in this place would die, regardless of how long he’d spent away from them.

It would be so much easier if he did this then, wouldn’t it?

Cast everything aside, and leave it all behind. Let there be nothing left in his history, let it all fade away. If his mark meant that there was some other purpose for him, so be it.

Nothing left. Nothing.

And yet…

A year after Yuusei’s death and here he stood in Neo Domino holding in his hands a deck of cards, at the top of which sat a dragon. And as he held it in his hands, preparing to demand answers and explaination for what had happened, Godwin spoke.

“It’s standard procedure when a corpse is brought into the possession of Security that the objects which came with it be stored away,” he told him, Jack holding the ‘Stardust’ card with bitter eyes. “Given your history with him,” Godwin continued almost too professionally, “I thought you might like to have the deck we found on Fudou Yuusei’s person.”

…There were few things that could render Jack Atlas silent.

As it seemed, aside from the tragedy of a year prior, this moment was another of them.


	13. 'Crow'

Why did they both have to die?

When Yuusei left, so did everyone else it seemed. Kiryu was taken away, and each time he tried to visit he was turned down. The day of the explosion was the same day he turned from halfway bak to his new hideout to watch as the entire building seemed to instantly become engluffed in flames of eerie blue before flickering out with a rumble.

Before the building was revealed to have crumbled to nothing but a crater in the process.

When Yuusei died he… Didn’t know what to do anymore, really. He wandered for a bit to distract himself before coming back to the place he’d been calling ‘home’ for the past while, and found someone else in the process- someone who dreamed of an escape for those in Satellite, someone who dreamed of a complete ‘Daedalus Bridge’.

If it hadn’t been for those people he’d have probably never really recovered from that night. Pearson and Bolger both worked in the construction of dueling equipment- duel disks, d-wheels… The sort of stuff Yuusei would have loved to work on in life.

Perhaps that was why he did more than just help to look after the kids after he met them. Perhaps that was why he asked them both to teach him rather than simply helping around when he figured they needed it. Why rather than simply learning about the ‘outside’ of the D-Wheel, he asked about the ‘inside’ as well.

Blackbird, in a sense, was just as much his teacher as Pearson and Bolger were. It was the Blackbird that Pearson used to teach the programming of the device, and as complex as it was, he eventually came to know the bike througholy.

Kiryu’s death had put a kink in those lessons. However in the end the lessons were what kept him going, if at least in Yuusei’s memory of constructing a d-wheel. If at least in memory of Kiryu’s dreams of a ‘last duel’. If at least…

He stood in the lot where it had happened one year ago and in silence stared at the place where the blood had long been washed away. This was Satellite- there would be no memorials or markers left for the dead here. Any casualties were ignored by all but what few may have known the deceased, and in this case that was him. He hadn’t seen Jack since the day it happened after all- and frankly, when the news feed came talking of a potential rising ‘king of riding duels’ he felt sick to his stomach and opted to pretend he’d never even seen that face there.

He was the only one left to pay his dues now. Or at least the only one who could.

“Yuusei,” he found himself saying quietly. “…I don’t really know if you’re listening. If I had it my way, I guess it’d be better if you werent. If you’re listening, that means you’re still stuck here right?” he asked, looking up to the night sky. “…I wouldn’t wish that on anyone,” he continued. “Let alone you and Kiryu.”

Was there a ‘heaven’ at all? He hoped Yuusei and Kiryu got there then. Or at least just somewhere other than here. As he spoke, he found himself talking about what had happened in the past year. About the kids he’d met that he now helped to look after, about Bolger, and Pearson, and about the bikes. 

“You know… I really think it’ll happen one day, Yuusei,” he continued saying aloud in the darkness of the lot. “One day, I’m gonna finish that bridge for everyone. And then Satellite won’t be like this anymore. It’ll take time,” he admitted with a pained smile. “…I know that. But…”

But at least it would happen one day, right?

As he walked back home he saw red and gold in the distance. And as he drew closer, frowning, red and gold revealed itself to be something grand and terrible all at once.

Crow ran as quick as the ‘bullet’ he once titled himself as, his eyes wide with fear. Fire, his mind screamed, fire, FIRE! The building they worked in for so much time was in flames, and if there were anyone inside, anyone at all-

He charged past the already growing crowd of people with no regard for his own safety, and dimly he thought he could hear Bolger’s voice calling for him to stay away from the warehouse. Instead however he pushed through to the first spot clear of fire, shouting between coughs of smoke. “OIIIIII!” he cried, cupping his hands and moving to search the building. “OIIIII!!!!!”

Coughing entered the air- quieter than his, from the far end-

And as he came toward it he could see the source, pinned beneath fallen beams of wood. “P… Pearson!” he shouted, instantly moving for the beams. Hot as they were however he initially found himself pulling his hands back with a shout, hissing. “Gh… Hang on Pearson!” he told the man, Pearson himself barely holding his eyes open as he watched the boy struggle to try and move the rubble atop him.

“Crow…”

“Don’t talk!” The beam would not move and his hands were burning under the heat but he still had to try didn’t he? He had to try, it had to work- “I just need to move these! Save your strength!” Just…

Don’t…

Pearson was smiling. And as Crow looked to him, tears running down his cheeks, the building collapsing to ruin around them.

“…It’s okay Crow. Hey… Look after everyone alright?” he asked, closing his eyes over with a final cough.

“No… No!” he cried in protest, renewing his futile attempts to dislodge the rubble. “NO!”

“ _CROW_!” someone was shouting distantly as he screamed. “ _CROW_!”

“YOU’RE NOT GOING TO DIE! I WON’T LET YOU..!”

“CROW!”

Someone was grabbing him from behind but with the strength he’d exhausted trying to move the rubble he could only weakly fight back, coughing. “NO!”

“We can’t save him!”

“NO!!”

“Crow we need to get out!”

…

 _No_ …

Bolger had pulled him out.

…And in the end, Bolger was right. With what had fallen onto Pearson it would have been impossible. There was no way to move all the rubble to get him out in time. Let alone save him from the internal bleeding it had likely caused.

In the ashes of the warehouse little had survived, and while they were still warm he found himself entering the ruins with glazed eyes. The body…

Was not something he could look at again once he had. But in the end, leaving him there?

The bike was salvaged somehow, and the duel disk and deck with it, the latter kept safe in the helmet compartment. It was coated with ash, almost destroyed on the outside.

The inside was still the same though. That, at least, had survived. So with that, perhaps he could repair it. …Somehow.

This was Satellite. There were no burials here, and the dead were remembered only briefly. But in this case, much like before…

It was a piss-poor pyre-raft really. The only reason he was sure it would burn properly was because experience from the night before had told him as much. And though he barely kept himself from heaving as he moved the corpse to it, he forced himself to do so.

And with a single match, another blaze started, Crow pushing the raft off into the sea as quickly as possible before falling back to the ground with dead eyes.

There were no burials here. No fancy funerals, no wakes and ‘proper cremation’s. In fact with what he was doing now he’d probably get a fourth marker to go with the two he’d managed to gain between Yuusei’s death and Pearson’s own.

He didn’t care.

And as the pyre burned before him, he bowed his head and wept, silent, wondering just how everything could have gone so horribly wrong.


	14. Chapter 14

The first thing he realized when he woke up was that he was being pressed down by some heavy weight that managed to cover everything but his face.

The next thing he realized was that doing this was remarkably easy to successfully do, what with him apparently being one third the size he had taken to wandering around in.

“ _ **Aah…**_ ” He took a few moments to examing his hands rather curiously at that, staring at them- he would have thought it impossible to bring himself to an inhuman size, but there it was; and given his inhuman state of existence, he was forced to admit that it made sense really.

Nonetheless, this didn’t change the fact that he was apparently pinned under Kiryu’s arm like some sort of teddy bear, in Kiryu’s bed, with absolutely no recollection of how he’d even gotten here. He could recall standing over the momentum pit if he thought hard enough… After that however, it was more or less a blur of light, colour…

…Taste?

He paused in his efforts to slip out from under Kiryu’s arm, fear growing as he focused as much on the ‘memory’ as he could. What could there possibly be to eat in a pit of energy? What could possibly…

Dull screams sounded in the back of his mind and so he pushed it back, turning his thoughts to escaping from Kiryu’s grip. He was definitely asleep, to say the least… And almost bitterly he noted how entirely peaceful he looked while he did so, finally pulling himself out from under the arm and tip-toeing to the edge of the bed before hopping down. Small as he was he didn’t make much of a sound when he landed- and though there was a slight rustling that had him stiffen for a brief moment Kiryu was otherwise unresponsive, leaving Yuusei somewhat free to leave the room.

One foot tall and no memory of the last number of hours was what he had awoken to. Yuusei ran as fast as he could from the room to say the least, if only to find for himself a hiding place where he could consider just what it was that was going on.

Unfortunately he made it all of three feet before falling flat on his face, his foot catching against the fabric of his poncho as another came around the corner.

“I see you’ve awakened,” Demak observed, helping the tiny spirit up and lifting the back of the poncho. Yuusei merely lifted his head up in response, waiting until he was back on his feet to speak. 

“ _ **Aah. …Though, I don’t remember doing this…**_ ”

“Is that so?” The man seemed to almost give an unimpressed stare, and he continued. “Then you likely don’t recall anything else either.” Demak shook his head, and as he looked down frowned. “If small size is preferred, then it would be wiser to stick to your previous one,” he continued. “That, or I would recommend not running. Your cloak barely fit that other form as it is.”

He had to look at his poncho rather sheepishly in response to that. “ _ **A… Aah…**_ ”

“On a better note, you should no doubt be feeling refreshed after your time in the Momentum chamber.” Er…

What?

As he looked up with questioning eyes Demak explained. “Your body is that of the Gods; therefore you would be able to gain power and energy in the same way as them- that is to say, by devouring other spirits.”

…

 _What..?_  His eyes widened, mouth slowly falling open in shock. “ _ **S-Spirits?**_ ”

“Of course. Old Momentum is full of them; ghosts remaining from the Zero Reverse.” At this Yuusei seemed to sway on his feet, and Demak stopped, albeit giving the small being a fairly bewildered glance. “…I believe I’ll be taking my leave now,” he instead decided, turning to move back down the hall to his own room. “Remember my advice about your form,” he added, his voice echoing from the walls as he vanished.

Yuusei did not answer to that, nor did he chance his size. Instead he stiffened on the spot as mad cackles echoed in the back of his mind, littered with screams and laughter and…

And…

Somehow he managed to remind himself to grab at the edge of the poncho ahead of him before he broke into a run- clutching it tight and heading as far from the ‘momentum’ core as possible. He would never really recall where he did manage to hide when he tired of running in the end after all that- however while he did hide, he swore to himself at least one more impossible thing, above almost anything else.

He was never going to go back to that place.

Not if it meant becoming the thing in the back of his mind.


	15. Chapter 15

Not long after the event of the ‘energy bath’, the matter of Momentum became a brief topic of discussion at the ‘meetings’. The effects it had, what happened while he was in there…

It was the first meeting that he was entirely aware of.

Despite this however, not a single thing he said during this meeting came of his own thoughts. Ccapac would not be so quick to abandon his chances at additional power and ‘fuel’. It was his advantage over the other ‘Gods’, and yet another noose to hang around his host’s neck. And so, much to Yuusei’s growing fear, he heard his own voice instead voice the fragments of truth that there were- how contented the momentum bath had left him, how comfortable he had been after.

How it would be the ‘obvious solution’ to any apparent depression or exhaustion should they see him in such a state. The state that he was almost always in for obvious reasons, if only to himself. The state that he held regardless.

Suddenly, hiding from the others became all the more serious. Faking a smile became that much more important. If Misty spotted him he would force himself to smile and trade short greetings, before the woman went on her way. If he passed Rudger, though he felt that the man would be somewhat more hesitant to do something as invasive as snatching him up and tossing him into the momentum, then he feigned an ‘awareness’ of sorts, not quite ‘cheer’, but at the very least not despair either.

If Kiryu caught him there was no questioning what he would do. Pretend to be as happy as possible, and it would be fine. If Ccapac took his words immediately after he smiled after all, there would be suspicions. But if he did so before that, then there would be no hesitance to throw him into the momentum. Indeed a calming place-

With dire consequences.

And so he would force himself to smile as he was carried off to spend time with his friend, managing to help with the D-Wheel, or simply talk about dueling itself. He didn’t have a deck any more of course; as he recalled, it had been taken-

Suddenly, Ccapac seemed to cling to those thoughts, leeching from them like a parasite would. “ _ **Security takes everything don’t they?**_ ” he heard himself ask, Yuusei internally roaring with despaired rage as his words were again twisted to further Kiryu’s dark descent.

Kiryu was nodding, growling- “They took my deck the moment we got there…”

“ _ **Then, they probably had mine, didn’t they?**_ ”

His friend seemed to stiffen with anger. “Yes… They would.” But… “But apparently it’s ‘impossible’ for me to enter Neo Domino!” he snarled. “Sure, Misty can enjoy her old life as much as she wants! But everyone else is stuck down here, waiting for some ‘sign’ from Rudger’s ‘god’!”

Ccapac seemed almost amused by this rage.

And so of course, the being fed it more. “ _ **There’s no need to be upset** **. I’m fine without a deck.**_ ”

“Of course I’m going to be ‘upset’! It’s not fair!”

“ _ **True, I do miss dueling.**_ ” Stop this…

“If I could just leave…”

Stop this… “ _ **I’m sure it won’t be long now.**_ ” Stop this! “ _ **Just a little longer- we have yet to finish the D-Wheel after all, right?**_ ” STOP!

Kiryu’s rage was quite clearly unrelenting, but even so he nodded, fists clenched. “…Only because you said so,” he finally said, snatching a socket wrench from the side to go back to work on his bike. “Only because of that! It’s not fair!”

And as Yuusei crumpled in the back of his mind, a gleam appeared in the eyes of Ccapac.

“ _ **No… It’s not.**_ ”


	16. Chapter 16

If he was going to be at meetings, he didn’t want to have to take larger size to be honest. If he had it his way in fact he wouldn’t appear at all, but if there was anything that the mutterings in the back of his mind managed to force him to do above all it was that. And it hurt, when that happened; the blinding, grating pain would shoot through his being and by the end of it he’d be awake in his bed- at ‘full size’.

It might not have been comfortable sleeping in whatever hide away he found, but he much preferred it to his ‘bed’ to be frank, and so if he was going to prevent it he would. As the months had passed, he was becoming privvy to more and more in the meetings.

So if he was going to sit in on them, he would have to find a way around the size.

Kiryu was almost done his D-Wheel by the time the idea had come up. It had almost been two years since he died. And when he made the suggestion there was an almost brief reversion to an earlier self, to a form of existence he’d held back before even the days of the ‘united’ Satellite.

“You need something better to sit on at the meetings?”

“ _ **Just something I can see over the table with,**_ ” he responded almost quietly, holding his more child-sized form for the moment lest he find himself awkwardly pulled into the offer to sit on Kiryu’s shoulder or head while he worked. “ _ **For when I’m smaller.**_ ”

It was likely for the very reason that he was forced to never refuse the offer of a ‘ride’- or rather in Kiryu’s perception, simply never refused, that the sheer level of strangeness tied to his preference in size was ignored. If he preferred it and it meant they spent more time with the other, then what problem was there?

There were many problems with it to be honest. While he still made his habits of hiding when a smile couldn’t be so easily forced, Kiryu was getting much better at hunting him down. He would find the spirit wandering in dark halls and snatch him up from behind with a largely crazed laugh, holding him close before deciding, given his typical lack of response beyond a flopping head, that he needed to calm down.

If he protested he found, he would simply hear himself agreeing that it would be a better idea. So by the end he merely closed his eyes and welcomed the fact that in the end, at least he wouldn’t remember what happened in that brilliant light.

By the two year mark, he had gotten at least marginally better at falsifying some form of cheer, he liked to think. Perhaps it was because he’d finally ‘given up’. What Ccapac did, he would, that was that.

But he would be damned if he didn’t make everything else as grating for the thing as possible, and if Ccapac disliked the fact that his host walked about at a size rivaled by house cats…

Kiryu seemed to rest his head on his hands for a moment in thought, pondering the small request his friend had brought up. “Mnnnn. A new chair…”

“ _ **A-Aah. A small stand on the old one would be fine, to be honest…**_ ” He hurriedly cut himself short at that point however, lest Ccapac decide it was a little  _too_  much indignity to deal with.

His friend apparently had no troubles with deciding on the solution however, merely grinning. “Alright! I have the perfect idea then! Don’t worry about it Yuusei- you’ll have the best seat next meeting!”

…Suddenly he was wondering if this was such a good idea… Particularly since Ccapac still held a connection to Kiryu himself. And that connection did not need a filter.

Yuusei himself would not see what went into that particular decision, but that did not mean the others did not. Demak would be the first, with Kiryu openly demanding assistance in procuring some sort of pillar, and it seemed in the end that the only reason Demak bothered helping with that was to keep the somewhat ‘off’ Dark Signer from shouting in his face for too long. And so a pillar was found, and after a few added touches that were mostly to make it look less like a support and more like it fit in with the chairs, Kiryu could be found dragging it into place in the meeting hall.

Rudger, needless to say, stared. “What are you doing…”

“Putting this in Yuusei’s spot!”

That was one way to get a rise out of the man. “I think you mean  _Ccapac-sama_ ,” he grated.

Kiryu pointedly ignored him, though for once offered more than just ‘it’s yuusei!’ in argument. “Tch… And why should I call him by something that isn’t his name!”

“Because if anything it is at the very least a title!”

“…A title?”

So then perhaps Rudger did  _not_  see Yuusei as the God itself..? It was a hard call- the fact was, he could well have been simply protesting through an excuse to simply get Kiryu to play along. Nonetheless he gave a stiff nod. “He has the body and power of a god!” he insisted. “Therefore, refer to him as such!”

The pillar scraped into place where Yuusei’s chair had once been, and Kiryu grew uncharacteristically silent. As a whole, Kiryu in a state of silence was not typically good- there was always some quiet sound, giggling perhaps, or humming. There was always something. If Kiryu was silent, it meant someone was speaking.

In a room of silence, it meant Kiryu as speaking with his  _god_. A god who now took full advantage of the seed unknowingly planted by Rudger, carefully giving it the extra push it needed to grow.

And the next day at the meeting that was called the Dark Signers watched in silence as the tiny vessel of Ccapac-Apu attempted to climb up the pillar, only to apparently ‘recall’ a particular ability being dead left him and simply hover up to the top, settling upon it with crossed legs and largely hidden by the poncho around him. Any awkwardness was ignored for the fact that by the opinions of most, his rank was above theirs, if not slightly.

Yuusei didn’t personally mind any of the unease for once- he disliked the attention, yes, but at the same time it very clearly brought large amounts of discomfort to the mutterings which were ever constant in his ears, and so he took full advantage of it.

At least until he realized that one again, Ccapac had the card with greater power in his hands, the meeting starting with plans to prepare for coming matches via short duels against the other.

A meeting during which, with a tone no different than he had used when calling his name, he heard Kiryu address him as exactly what most of the others did.


	17. Chapter 17

As the three year mark drew closer, their attention to the world outside became more expansive. Before, where Misty had brought with her an occasional update on the occurences of the city they now had a more up to date resource to show them.

For the time had come it seemed, for the Signers to gather.

The sight of Jack upon the screen dueling as the reigning champion had come as both a shock to himself and Kiryu and, in the case of the latter, a spark to fuel a growing rage that Yuusei had thought at least dampened until now.

As it turned out, it had merely been hidden.

‘Traitor’, Kiryu snarled about their old friend, spouting curses at the walls and cackling manically at the thought of a battle against him in the future thereafter. What a traitor he was, leaving them here!

He wanted to tell him that it was Jack’s choice, escaping. That he didn’t feel angry about it, or even mildly upset. It meant that Jack had somehow made it where they couldn’t.

It meant, he hoped, that Jack had managed to move on.

Jack did not actually duel to start off in the tournament they watched. In fact for a short amount of time attentions were drawn to three others in particular, those watching from within the base consisting of the three male Dark Signers and Yuusei himself. Misty, as it seemed, watched from elsewhere.

For the first battle it was a young boy named Rua facing off against a man dressed in the garb of a Knight. A difficult battle, but he succeeded- his sister was not so fortunate, becoming forced to end her match in a tie, but nonetheless revealing a brilliant mark of red upon her arm as a result.

Signer.

Then, came the unspoken thought, it was more than likely her twin was the same.

Her twin in question would very nearly be defeated in his next match- the man known as Bommer would face him, and in the end the boy would slowly find himself drawing closer to loss.

He won at the last minute, and in a move that was arguably by chance, taking him to the final battle.

A battle which would be against the Psychic Duelist and Signer ‘Aki’. And Aki’s opponents were not left in as healthy a state as those in Rua’s tree of fights.

She could have killed him, Yuusei realized with growing horror as Aki’s final battle drew to a close. She probably would have even, if not for the fact that his mark activated then- despite that however he would lose nonetheless, his inability to move resulting in a natural forfeiture.

And a battle between Aki Izayoi and the reigning champion.

Jack bore the mark of the wings, it seemed. Making four of five Signers known- and according to Rudger, that meant all five were now ‘awake’. The details of what happened after that became clear were unknown to Yuusei. The screen had been clicked off the moment it became aparent, the results of the duel not needed to choose what would come next.

All that mattered now then, was that the battle could begin.

“When do I fight him?” Kiryu had demanded immediately therafter. “When do I leave!?”

“In time,” came Rudger’s response, and Kiryu did not react well.

“I want to fight him now!” he roared, the grip on his cards tightening. “This is what I’ve been waiting for…” the man cackled, eyes wide. “I need to kill him! Destroy him!” No…

No, no, he wanted to cry, if even quietly as his friend sank deeper into his rage. Stop this…

If he could he would have held his head, wanting nothing more than for his friend to be calmed. At the very least return to the mutterings, the eerie silence- even that would be better than hearing these things, wouldn’t it?

Whisperings in his mind were asking what he could possibly do to change all of this, what he could ever hope to succeed at. Appease Kiryu, now?

There was no return from this path. He supposed he realized that. From here, the times of old were long gone. But…

Floating down the hall with the ability that Ccapac had unintentionally revealed to him that first time with the pillar, Yuusei made the only decision that he was certain would work for this time. The only choice he knew for certain would cheer his friend, even if he would be unable to recall it.

If he could fly even somewhat after all, there was no need for a rope right? So then with that in mind, staring into the momentum below and trembling in place…

He fell.


	18. Chapter 18

In this state of mind, nothing seemed to matter. Perhaps if any had bothered to make comparisons, it would have been compared to a drunken high, some narcotic side effect of immense proportions. However they either paid it no mind, preferring the cheered state of the ‘god’, or kept it to themselves.

Even in this state of mind, he was able to think on Kiryu’s own upset. Even in this state, filled with nothing but contented bliss, he had no difficulties in making the decision to leave the pits, even as mutterings and whispers in the back of his mind demanded otherwise. He didn’t want to eat right now, he wasn’t hungry don’t be so  _silly_ , there were other things to do right?

He only hovered a few inches off the ground- the poncho dragged against the floor around him as he did so, fluttering with each movement of his arms as he peacefully searched for the room Kiryu would most likely be found in. The garage was an obvious choice- he was bound to be fine-tuning his D-Wheel after that news feed, he did hope he hadn’t missed him however, that would simply be  _horrible_ …

“ _ **Wuaaaaaaa...**_ ” It would be to Kiryu’s great surprise that Yuusei’s voice would come over the air with far more open-cheer than at all typical, and even more that he would look to see his friend poking his head about the entrance with a smile. “ _ **Found you~**_ ” he continued with a wave.

Ah- Yuusei was…

To be honest he couldn’t help but smile himself at that. “Ahh- Yuusei!” he laughed, grinning as the little spirit came over. Kiryu would have him picked up in an instant, putting his tools to the side and carrying the little one off with a rare and nonetheless honest laugh. …Albeit one that was clearly laced with a bitter attitude. “How can you be so happy?” he asked, holding him. “After what we just saw, how can you be happy?”

“ _ **I’m not worried~**_ ” came the cheery response, albeit eased along by chittering whispers in the back of his mind. “ _ **Kiryu will win anyways.**_ ”

Perhaps if he had been in his right mind he would have said something entirely different, but for the moment Kiryu was more than pleased with that. …Albeit still upset and bitter. “But he’s been there for two years! Two years!” he protested, only to blink as the tiny spirit he held moved to snuggle against his robes.

“ _ **You’re warm~**_ ”

“Yuusei…” Kiryu found himself looking to the little spirit almost with a frown as he came to his room, pausing at the door to rub his head somewhat.

“ _ **Maaaaaahh~**_ ”

“Hn!” Like a cat. The door was opened and soon after closed, and in the end he was lying back on the bed with Yuusei’s tiny form locked in his arms. “…I’m still going to find him for you, Yuusei. I’m still going to destroy him. For all he left behind!”

It would not be until much later that Yuusei would regain clarity and realize what he had wrought. But for the moment, he only thought of one thing and that was simply ‘make kiryu feel better’, and as he gave a small yawn and clung to Kiryu’s robes the voices assured him that this was what he was doing. “ _ **That’s good,**_ ” he answered quite calmly. “ _ **You’ll win.**_ ”

“Of course!” Kiryu agreed, albeit keeping his voice to a quieter tone. “You just watch and wait, Yuusei,” he continued, absently stroking where the spirit’s stomach would be as contented mutterings came to the air as a result. “Just watch…”

And as he quietly melted into contented slumbering, the consequences of his actions never once came to mind, the voices merely assuring his subconscious that Kiryu was ‘happy’.

That was all that mattered, neh?


	19. Chapter 19

The aftermath of that duel against ‘Aki Izayoi’ had him questioning himself and his motives for the past two years or so, and he detested that. He was hospitalized of course. Given the sheer brute force coming from cards made real that wasn’t very surprising.

It was Aki herself, or rather her words, that had him hesitate. The matter of other signers had been almost too casually dealt with by Godwin, and while he admittedly didn’t mind the fact that he wasn’t the ‘only one’ as much as he let on, the fact remained that Godwin should have mentioned it in the first place, or so he figured.

The twins were fine, he supposed. Godwin had ‘arranged’ for a meeting with the two as a sort of consolation prize for being the youngest competitors, or perhaps because of the brutal fight between the boy and the ‘witch’ as she’d been called. Either way they’d managed to wind up in the same ward -somehow-, and it hadn’t taken long for Rua’s fanboy tendencies to drive him from the room.

“Aah- Jack-niisan!” Ruka protested from her seat. “Your injuries-“

“I’ll be fine!”

“Err…”

The twins for their part traded almost awkward glances as Jack left the room. “…Was it something I said?” Rua asked, only for his sister to sigh. “What!?”

During the fight against Aki Izayoi…

He had been reminded of Kiryu, somehow. They were nothing alike of course- he was not so naive as to try and draw any clear connections, but all the same as he walked through the hall that Security had made clear for the sake of privacy and recovery he scowled.

The grin on Kiryu’s face the last day he had seen him was burned into his memory and it was the same as the grin he had seen on Aki’s- and somehow, when he had seen that face again he wanted nothing more than to shatter it where once he hadn’t even bothered. Where once he’d instead put all his energy into mental curses until explosions rocked the ground and blew ‘that face’ from the earth’s surface for him. Where once he’d lost his chance, he supposed.

He held in his hand a deck that wasn’t his, his own deck in the pocket of the hospital issue shirt he was stuck wearing. And as he did so he found his mood only worsening, glaring at the ‘Stardust Dragon’ card as though somehow it were all the dragon’s fault. In the end however, there was no point. In the end, he merely held the deck with his only good hand and continued to think upon less than pleasant if not self-deprecating thoughts that were summoned up by that one final duel.

At the end of it Aki lost, and Aki went back to ‘Divine’. At the end of it, nothing had changed.

And in the back of his mind he found himself bitterly wondering if he had changed a single bit since he left Satellite, if for all the title of ‘king’ implied, he couldn’t even prevent one thing from occurring right before him. “Tch.” He turned, scowling and moving to walk back to the room. “Stupid- Ngk-h-!”

“AHCKH-!” As Jack swiftly stepped back he scowled, watching as the nurse who had run into him fell. “Ow ow ow…” Hahhhh… His glare intensified, and she looked up. “A- AHHhhHHH! J-J-Jack-“

“ _Jack Atlas_ … Hnhhnhnhnhnhnhn…”

Any anger he had in that moment dissipated in an instant, replaced immediately with cold dread. His eyes snapped up from the ground toward the sound of laughter and they widened when they spotted the source.

The ‘nurse’ on the ground was now standing, turning in confusion herself. And across from them, dressed in black and blue with eyes stained with death Kiryu cackled. “It’s been a while  _Jack_ … You left us all behind..!”

“A-Aaahhh…” This nurse was not going to enjoy the next few minutes, he could guarantee that.

For his part however, he wasn’t even registering the fact that she was there. “Kiryu…” How…  ** _HOW_**!? “You  _died_!” he forced himself to shout, shaking his head. “There was nothing left!”

“No, there wasn’t,” Kiryu admitted, a manic grin on his face. “I’m surprised you paid attention to that, leaving us all behind in Satellite…”

“S-Satellite!?” the nurse beside him protested, looking to him with wide eyes. “You-”

Jack ignored her. And Kiryu continued. “You have something that doesn’t belong to you Jaaaack…” He cackled, the sounds uneven and echoing through a steadily darkening hallway before quite abruptly the grin snapped into a snarling scowl. “Where did you get  _that deck_?”

There was a duel disk on Kiryu’s arm. His own disk arm was still broken from the duel with Aki. And beside him the nurse seemed to tremble on the spot, while at the same time rooting herself to it.

“What do you want?” he finally ground out to the ‘corpse’ that stood before him, a hyena’s grin staring back in response.

“ _Your head…_ ”

Tch. “And how do you think you’re getting  _that_?” he snarled, only to stiffen as fires errupted around them in an impassible fence of darkened heat.

Kiryu held his duel disk forward, and he grinned. “With one  _final duel_ ~”

With a broken arm… And no disk on his perso-

What _was_  that which had fallen out of the nurse’s bag, and why was it  _now_  that he was noticing the not quite identical nature of the uniform? “…Oi,” he demanded lowly, eyes snapping to the briefly terrified woman. “Do you duel?”

“EH- A-Aaah…” She swallowed, and slowly nodded. “Y-Yes-“

“Get your duel disk,” he continued, looking back to his opponent and former friend of three years past. “You’ll be my hands in this fight.”

“Eeeeh…” In the face of that the woman stiffened yet again, but with a quick and steady nod she did as asked. “Right!” she answered, locking the fallen disk on her arm as Jack swapped out one deck of cards for his own. The disk was set, and the deck was shuffled…

Cards were drawn and the battle began.

“ _DUEL!_ ”


	20. Chapter 20

Kiryu was gone.

He realized this soon after waking up from whatever he’d done in that bizarre state of momentum induced bliss, and when he discovered the D-Wheel was missing he had a feeling he would be gone for some time.

However Kiryu was not the only one. Misty of course was a given- she still had a life, in an odd sense, and with it came her responsibilities. Rudger in the meantime had been going out more and more to gather ‘servants’ of sorts, and for that reason he could expect him to be gone for the remainder of both the afternoon and the evening even.

He didn’t know where Demak was. For the moment however, coming to one of the highest levels of the building he’d ever traversed, he didn’t particularly care. His time was limited. The others would only be gone so long.

And the fact was, he missed the sun no matter how much the mutters in the back of his mind scorned it. The sun wasn’t even out he would discover, taking ‘child size’ for the sake of avoiding any stray animals above that could potentially see him as a meal, and for the sake of simply keeping up proper speed.

The sky above was dreary, bleak, and grey. It was covered completely in shadows, and if it had been any other in his position they would have commented on how absolutely terrible it was outside.

To Yuusei, it had never been brighter.

As he walked however, it was clear how little had changed in his absence. As he walked, passed by people of all sorts in the ‘BAD’ area he now resided in, he admitted that in the end nothing had changed.

The dead were still left to rot. People still lived in chaos, constantly fighting.

And in the end he found himself wandering to the very edges of the area, deciding to avoid as many people as possible. The fact was, no one could see him. No one would have noticed him if he stayed anyways, and watching in that sort of state all the crimes and suffering that was still rampant felt invasive.

So in his silent wandering he would instead find himself at the shoreline, Neo Domino visible far off in the distance. The waters between the two locations were, as he had always remembered, turbulent and viscious, crashing against the ruined concrete docks and against the poles of an unfinished bridge far off to the side.

It was much more peaceful here he decided, standing on his own on the docks. The wind was strong, but as it blew against him it was more calming than anything, giving him feelings of things he had forgotten while in the depths of Old Momentum. He wanted to commit everything here to memory- no matter how much ruin there was, how much division there was, he wanted to remember what this place looked like before he returned.

Because he would, in the end, return. There would be no choice in that after all. With that thought in mind he opened his eyes and turned his gaze upward, sad eyes staring at the distant clouds. He…

He didn’t want to think of it, just what would happen when the Dark Signers made their move. He didn’t want to think of how things could possibly become worse for all these people here.

And then suddenly, ‘how’ revealed itself.

“Hey! Guys, look!”

“ _ **Aah-**_ ” He stiffened as the sound of children came over the air turning with wide eyes. How?

How could someone other than the Dark Signers see him he wanted to ask, five kids who easily came above him in height now coming toward him. “Ginga, check it out!” the boy with a bandanna shouted, “It’s a kid!”

“He looks like he fell in a pile of grease!” ‘Ginga’ responded almost suspiciously, Yuusei merely keeping silent in response. “And what’s wrong with his eyes!?” One of the girls with him seemed to fix the boy with a glare in response to that, and he shrugged. “It’s true!”

“He looks cute~” the other girl sighed, the group having easily surrounded him by this point. “Nehhh, who are you?”

“We’ve never seen anyone like you before…” the third of the boys murmured, staring to the strange black-and-blue ‘child’ with wide eyes. “Did you wander here alone?”

“Do you not have parents either?”

“ _ **…**_ ” He didn’t want to speak. If he spoke, he would give himself away as something other than ‘human’ as they suspected after all. More importantly, if Ccapac took his voice here… Well, if he had a reason, it wouldn’t be good.

Holding his mouth closed he looked down and away, the others staring.

“Ehhhh… Can’t you talk?” the bandanna wearing boy asked with a mutter, scratching his head.

With some hesitantcy, he chose to shake his head. It was true in a sense after all- albeit only loosely so. It was enough for them however, and so they smiled.

“Well,” the somewhat older girl in the group began, “That’s okay! You can draw your name!” Er… Well, he supposed that they wouldn’t be able to read kanji, true, but…

…Y-yuusei was a ‘particle’…

Nonetheless someone had already gotten a sharp stone on the side, holding it out. “You can scratch it into the concrete! We’ll do the same!” Ah?

Yuusei stared at the stone a moment, pondering his options. He could just leave, he supposed. He was a ‘spirit’, and it wasn’t as though this exception of being noticed would be common. And yet…

He took the stone, crouching down somewhat as he held it above the concrete. It had been so long since he’d seen someone who was  _alive,_ even if they were children! So long since he could interact with anyone outside, since he could interact with even the smallest bit of freedom at all! And dimly in the back of his mind he wondered why Ccapac would allow such freedom but without thinking he squashed the thought back.

He couldn’t bring himself to care why, as selfish as it was. He couldn’t bring himself to think of anything but what little time he had, and of the fact that in the end he would have to leave. So, pondering the characters of his name for a moment he brought the stone down, drawing a somewhat crude ‘star’ shape shooting through the air.

“Eeeh… A shooting star?” one of the boys asked, Yuusei merely nodding. It was as close as they would get to a ‘wandering star’ really…  ”So then ‘hoshi’ would work right?”

AH-

Th-They ignored the shooting part altogether…

Despite this, while he briefly stared at them in what could probably be interpreted as dull shock he nodded again. He supposed, in the end… Well, his real name would be remembered just as long really.

“I’ll go next!” the boy in the bandana laughed, scratching what looked like a striped cat in the ground. “‘Taiga’ is my name!”

“But your name means ‘river’…”

“It sounds like ‘tiger’ though!”

“But…”

“Me! Me next, me next!” the youngest laughed, the little girl waving her arms and taking the stone. And her name was… “Kokoro!”

Ah- A heart.

“And I’m Hikari!” the eldest continued, drawing a shining ‘light’ as best she could.

“Ginga!” the next boy said with a grin, scratching what looked to be some sort of wavy series of lines in the rock. “And unlike someone,” he added with a grin, “I’m not afraid to say it means river.”

“It’s girly!”

“Is not!”

The stone was dropped and the final boy picked it up, adding one final scratched drawing to the pile. “My name is ‘Daichi’,” the boy explained with a smile. “Um… It means ‘big value’, so…”

…

He drew a bag of yen.

“But Daichi it’s ‘value’ in a completely different sense…” Hikari lamented, the boy merely shrugging.

“How else am I gonna draw it?”

“There are a few ways…”

“Hey hey, ‘Hoshi’..!” Kokoro laughed, tugging at Yuusei’s poncho as he turned to stare. “Why don’t you come home with us! You can meet Crow-niichan!” Eh…  _Crow_..?

…It couldn’t be  _his_  Crow though, right?

“ _ **…**_ ” As he stared with what was almost recognition at the name the others grinned.

“You’re alone too right?” Taiga asked, Yuusei of course not responding. “So you’re probably hungry right?”

As Yuusei somewhat awkwardly looked to the side (admittedly, he was a bit hungry given how long he’d been out…) the others laughed, and before he knew it he was being pulled away by the children.

“Then come on!” Ginga cheered. “Crow-niichan’s bound to have something good for us to eat today!”

“A little bit of something is always better than nothing right?” Hikari asked, giving the spirit a small smile.

“And we can clean off the black stuff on your face!”

Er…

It… It wasn’t…

Even so he found himself being led toward the bridge, his eyes drawn to the structure as the others moved to one of the buildings at the side. ‘Crow-niichan!’ they were shouting, darting into the building with laughs. ‘Crow-niichan look, we made a friend!’

Ah- They saw him as a friend after something so small?

As he turned to look at where they vanished he spotted what looked to be a D-Wheel, black and orange-gold in colour with almost wing-like protrusions on the side. The possession of such a device in Satellite… The possession of any D-Wheel was already a feat to be respected, given the illegal status of them. To have something in this condition…

“A new friend?” an older voice asked over the crowd of laughs, Yuusei frowning for a moment as he attempted to place it. It sounded… Familiar. Not  _too_  familiar mind, but- “And where did you find them?”

“We didn’t go too far!” “We promise we didn’t!” “His name is Hoshi, come see-!”

Ah-

As footsteps came to leave the building he turned, looking up from the d-wheel he’d wandered off to inspect. And with what he saw he found himself frozen on the spot, eyes widening in what could easily have been mistaken for the fear all children of Satellite eventually had in the face of an unfamiliar adult, in the face of anyone more than a foot taller.

The Crow that they spoke of…

Was the same Crow he had left behind. He had grown somewhat in the three years that had passed- hell, his voice had changed enough that he hadn’t immediately recognized it, though memory could have played into that as well really. And he certainly wasn’t the 14 year old boy he’d fought with back then. In fact if he were at ‘full size’ now, they’d likely be the same height.

They…

“Hey!~” Crow greeted with an inviting tone, stooping down to the seeming ‘child’s level. Crow wouldn’t recognize him, in this state. The fact that he could see him at all surprised him, but even so. Smaller than the youngest of the children he was apparently now caring for, cloaked heavily in fabric and with any familiar colouration replaced either with black or blue. If he spoke, he would give himself away- there was no doubt.

But then, he’d made the decision to not speak long ago, hadn’t he?

As he bowed his head and looked away, unable to stare at his old friend, now older than he was in death, Crow spoke up again. “Hoshi right?” he asked, receiving no response. “You got a lot of black on you, ‘Hoshi’… You must have been going through some rough times until now, huh?”

Haha… How accurate…

How accurate that was he thought, slowly willing himself to nod. This was his friend but he couldn’t speak, his friend but he couldn’t tell him what had happened! He couldn’t tell him that the one he thought was dead was…

So much  _worse._

Crow was smiling. It was a worried one, and he held to Yuusei a hand. “Do you wanna come inside? I made stew for the others; there’s probably enough for you too.” It was unspoken that ‘enough’ would mean Crow didn’t get any, but despite this he nodded. Perhaps he could get away with just not eating whatever he had.

Crow’s hand was still there. And with hesitancy he reached out to take it, his own small, somewhat knob-knuckled hand placed over Crow’s own.

He had to hold back a sound of surprise when he felt Crow’s hands though- he hadn’t been looking at them, but what he felt wasn’t quite the same as a normal one. They were scarred hands he thought as Crow led him inside, showing him around the tiny hide-away. Burned and poorly treated, but despite this it seemed that he retained any and all dexterity he’d had in them.

Or perhaps, he’d simply adapted.

Crow was different now he thought to himself, listening to the young man as he was sat down on a ragged cushion. Chipped bowls and washed jars were the dishes to use, with spoons almost missing entirely.  ”It’s a little hot,” he was saying as he dished it out from the old pot he’d set up over a worn electric heater. “So be careful!”

“Okay!” the children chorused, Yuusei finding himself distracted as the food was passed out. It took until there was a bowl held right in front of him that he realized Crow had finished dishing up.

“Yo- eat up okay?”

“ _ **…**_ ” A nod, and he slowly took the bowl in both hands. It was a simple stew. It reminded him of the old days of Team Satisfaction, but more importantly of days growing up under Martha’s care. It had been put together with whatever food Crow had been able to find- a few vegetables, and perhaps some fish he’d caught off the end of the bridge itself. A weak stew, but as he slowly brought it up to take a sip-

- ** _Sfft_** -!

He visibly stiffened and put the bowl down on the small cement block-and-plywood table, bringing his hands to his mouth.

“I told you it was hot!” Crow laughed, Yuusei merely looking down as the man sighed. “Don’t worry- it shouldn’t take long to cool. Just be patient!” Patient…

Right.

…It was good stew, he thought to himself as he waited. It had been too hot, true, but it hadn’t tasted too bad to be honest.

He just…

Hadn’t realized…

- _tpf_ -

- _tapf_ -

- _tpf_ -

“Eh… Hoshi?” As the spirit trembled he opened his eyes, small spots of wet falling to his poncho. “Are you okay?” Kokoro asked.

Crow turned back from where he was already cleaning up at that. “Mn? Something wrong?”

Silence. Yuusei shook his head more than deliberately, feigning a lack of concern as best he could.

As it seemed, Crow was more perceptive than that. “…Hey.” He paused in the cleaning, coming back to the table. “Whatever happened, it’s gonna be okay, alright?” Ha. “It’s over now.” Haha… Hah…

Even just by saying that…

Crow had on his face a small smile, and looking back behind him a moment the expression became a smirk. “Hey- how about you guys go check on the fishing traps while I clean Hoshi up alright?” he asked, the others blinking.

“Ah- But Crow-niichan,” Hikari protested, “I thought you said-” Hikari was given what looked to be a wink in response to that- and, nodding in understanding, she stood to move. “Right. Come on everyone!”

“Eh- For the traps!?”

“Just follow me!”

“Ehhhhhh…”

The room was cleared rather quickly to say the least. And with a small smile, Crow sighed, sitting down himself. “…You kinda remind me of someone, you know?” he admitted, looking away for a moment before turning back to Yuusei. And as Yuusei remained just as silent in response, almost deliberately keeping himself from moving, Crow continued. “He’s been gone for a bit… But you know, sometimes I like to think he’s still around.” He looked back to Yuusei, entirely unaware of how accurate his words were. “You’ve probably lost someone really close right, coming here?” No response. “…And it hurts- no matter what some might say, that sort of thing always does. But after a while…” With a brief pause Yuusei found himself looking up, frowning somewhat as Crow continued. “You realize that even though they’re gone, you can’t just give up- you gotta live for them. And if you do that, it’s like they never left, right?”

“ _ **…**_ ” He almost opened his mouth- almost. Instead he looked to Crow with an almost surprised expression, as though never expecting those sorts of words to come from his friend.

Crow however had already stood up again- he’d moved back to the end of the room where dishes and things were kept, finding a cloth. “How about we get you cleaned up of all that black huh?” he said, the spirit behind him merely trembling silently in place. “Whatever it is is on thick, but nothing a bit of water won’t fix right?” No, he prevented himself from saying. Not in this case…

Not in this-

A shudder passed through him, and without warning he stood, silently stepping back. It was a cold feeling, a chill of sorts that within the last year had become all too familiar. When one card in particular was set upon a disk, charged with momentum and released. When but one card, anywhere in the world-

As Crow finished gathering what he needed he turned, smiling. “Maybe after we can figure out some sleeping arrangements,” he was saying, “It might get a bit cramped, but we should…”

There was no one there.

“How…”

He hadn’t heard any footsteps, none at all. As though the boy had simply floated away…

And already far off in the distance Yuusei floated above the ground, flying back toward the Old Momentum as quickly as possible. The pull grew stronger, and with fists clenched he felt his body stiffen, his vision grow dark and then displaced-

The spirit collapsed to the ground into an instant state of sleep.

And in the distance, as the glowing symbol of the ‘Giant’ arose, so did the beast it represented.


	21. Chapter 21

They should have lost.

Funny that phrase, and how horribly encompassing it was his subconscious thoughts wound up arguing. Perhaps then, his mind seemed to decide, it would be better to say  _this_.

They should have  **died**.

From the instant Kiryu’s laughter picked up again amid his accusations of so called betrayal he had felt himself grow cold, the two gathered monsters on the field bursting into pillars of flame as something _else_ seemed to appear between them.

For an instant, he thought he could see the shadow of another supposedly dead friend, someone who Kiryu spoke of as though he was alive.

Someone Kiryu had all but implied ‘bringing back’ through their conversation in this duel.

And it was through conversation that the woman’s name come about- ‘Carly’. Better than ‘not-nurse’ to be honest. It was through the conversation that he forced himself to dredge up forgotten memories of darker days, of thoughts he had long since tried to banish from his mind.

There was no time to explain.

Particularly not as the silhouette that appeared only briefly before them began to distort- warping, twisting, growing… It exploded into a roaring flame that threw him off his feet and Carly as well, the two skidding against the ground with cries of pain as the hospital enclosed in the ‘arena’ was destroyed.

By the power of one last card however, they were spared. The field spell that allowed the giant’s existence was shattered, at the cost of the lifepoints for both sides. By that card it seemed, they narrowly avoided the consequences a loss would have brought.

He could not move.

His breathing laboured and his body half crushed by the impact of stone he could not move, only able to watch as Kiryu walked over with the same grin from before. “I could kill you right here if I wanted,” he laughed, expression of mirth only growing. “It would be easy…”

“Hhhahhhh… Hahhhhh…” He swallowed, scowling and looking to his once friend with rage filled eyes. “Then why haven’t you…” he spat, only to watch as Kiryu’s face twisted further.

“Because I have something so much more fun in mind…” And unable to resist Jack watched as the man reached forward to the pocket where the other deck lay, snatching it from within and holding it with a grin. “…Later though… Much later! For now I have to return this, hnhnhahahHAHA!~”

“Gh… You… …GHACK-” As Kiryu’s foot connected with his stomach he wheezed, eyes widening in an instant before almost closing over in fatigue. “…B… Bastard… You’re not Kiryu…” Not even Kiryu as he was three years ago- No, not like this. This… Was not… “ _You_ …”

The last thing he saw before blacking out was a white-faced grin on black blue and red turning away, chuckles on the air. And the last thing he heard…

‘ _Hang on!_ ’ someone cried, panicked voice sounding almost as though it came from under water. ‘ _It’ll be okay, hang on! I’m going to get you out!_ ’

He wouldn’t remember Carly helping him up and onto the gurney table’s underside, the woman covering it with a blanket to flee the scene before other reporters appeared. Nor would he remember her helping him to the back seat of her car, the woman driving as swift as possible toward her apartment. And if he hadn’t rememered all of that, it was hardly expected for him to recall being helped toward a bed, where he was all too happy to black out completely.

And in the next room, still holding the duel disk with Jack’s deck of cards in it, Carly found herself wondering just what it was she’d managed to get herself into.


	22. Chapter 22

He wasn’t entirely sure how long he would spend recovering in Carly’s apartment to be honest. His broken arm was still broken of course- and what with being thrown against a wall of conrete he was feeling more than lightly bruised along the back.

Oh and there was the kick Kiryu gave him while he was down, the bastard. “Tch…” Ow.

He couldn’t stay long to be honest. More importantly, he didn’t want to stay long, particularly not when leaving resulted in Carly giving loosely veiled attempts to get him to open his mouth for an interview as they walked through the city.

And no, he wasn’t going to talk, leave him the fuck alone to his thoughts dammit! He was sore, he wanted to be back in his own apartment, and…

Damn it all, he wanted to know what the hell had _happened_  in that fight. How a dead man could walk up to him as though he had never even had a cold, talking about another dead man as though it were the same with them. He wanted to know just what had happened!

…And where everything had gone wrong.

And as he stood on the look-out tower in the center of the city, the sunglasses from Carly’s ‘disguise plan’ in his hand, he found himself looking for Satellite only to find the sight impossible from where he was.

‘ _Left us all behind,_ ’ Kiryu had said.

Kiryu had come out of Satellite to find him then. And if his words were to be believed, then Yuusei-

“Gh…” His good hand gripped the railing tight and he shook his head, snarling under his breath. No!

He had been there, he had  _seen_  it!

The ray of light from a momentum-charged bullet slamming against the back of his head.

The lifeless corpse that they’d carried away.

He’d  _held,_   _in his hands_  the deck that had belonged to him, the deck confiscated from a long dead body!

He…

“You’ve been trying to get here the entire time,” a now familiar voice stated quietly from behind. Jack didn’t turn, and, still holding the drinks she’d had from the argument he’d witnessed Carly came over, her head bowed. “…Jack. In that duel…”

He frowned, looking down to the woman beside him almost suspiciously. This didn’t sound like an attempt at an interview- if anything he noted with narrowed eyes, Carly was shaking- her head was bowed and the drinks were tightly gripped in her hands.

And in his silence, she managed to ask- “…Who was he? ’Yuusei’?”

For a moment, he considered simply walking away again. For some reason however…

“He was a friend,” he started almost hoarsely, looking back out to the sea which was devoid of Satellite’s visible presence. “…Someone I’ve been trying to forget for the last three years.”

Someone who had in the end, left more a mark than he had ever cared to admit. Even as someone who had abandoned everything to become someone else. Even as someone who became a king in name only.

He could never forget him, in the end.

And from beside him, Carly listened to whatever he said, as he found himself recounting day after day spent together with ‘Team Satisfaction’, or even in Martha’s home as kids. And from beside him, as he slowly came to stop sharing what he hadn’t for so long…

“…Perhaps… What it means to move on…” Carly’s eyes dimmed somewhat, and she struggled to find the right words to say. “…Maybe, instead of trying to forget everything… If you took the good, and lived for that… Or… Um…”

Hn.

She really wasn’t much good at talking was she? “If what Kiryu said was right, I might not be able to do even that.”

“…But you have to try, right?” At the look she received Carly winced, before speaking up again. “I mean-! … …Instead of tying to make a path to become ‘king’… Then perhaps, for Yuusei’s sake, it would be better to be king-like- to… To be a ‘king’ for the people!”

…A king for the people?

Somehow he found himself thinking back to the better moments of Team Satisfaction, with dreams of unity and peace from chaos. No problems for anyone any more, none at all…

Paranoia toward that goal had destroyed Kiryu. In the process, it had destroyed Yuusei as well.

He didn’t know what became of Crow. …Suddenly, he was finding himself regretting that.

…A king for the people, eh?

“Hm!” He grabbed one of the drinks Carly had, the woman jumping somewhat as he leaned back against the railing. “That might not be such a bad idea.”


	23. Chapter 23

Some would say he was an idiot, thinking of going to meet with Divine of Arcadia.

Actually everyone would probably say he was an idiot, but frankly he didn’t care. They needed to talk to Aki, and Divine would get them to Aki- that was all he could think of at the time, and while it was probably absolutely bizarre to have two lone twelve year olds request this sort of thing Divine seemed to roll with it, inviting them to dinner and then standing to leave to apparently get Aki for them as requested.

Metal doors had closed over at that point, and for a few moments Rua cheerily pondered on what Aki would be like outside of a duel, his sister not nearly so positive.

And quite unfortunately Divine had a reason for having metal doors in what was definitely not the sort of room which had metal doors, and soon enough Ruka was collapsing into a coughing fit followed by a sleep, Rua himself attempting to rouse her in an instant as oddly coloured smoke continued to fill the room.

Ruka however, would not awaken.

And unsure of what else to do, he did the only real thing he could.

“HEY!” he shouted, pounding the door as the smoke stung his eyes, somehow not feeling the need to cough despite this. “LET US OUT!” he screamed, his ‘tail mark’ slowly pulsing almost in tune with his cries. “ ** _LET US OUT_**!!”

Later, when he was pulled away and separated from his unconscious sister, he would find himself wondering just why it was he hadn’t collapsed when she did.

In the end he would find out not long afterward just what a truly accursed power small scale healing really was however, and he could not have been more relieved to be told he would not be dueling any longer.

…

He kind of wished that feeling hadn’t been cut short by the sudden presence of earthquakes and screaming though.


	24. Chapter 24

In the aftermath of the wrath brought on by two gods, the Arcadia building was almost entirely devoid of people. Those who remained, remained by mix of chance and power.

The twins were by far the most well off- they came to the hospital not by nessecity but by concern. Along with them came Aki- and in contrast, she was by far the worst off. Pale, cold, and giving all the signs of one all too close to death, the ambulance had rushed her off the moment they had her, a separate vehicle coming for the others.

Jack, despite his own injuries, was not so easily taken away- he fought against the medics fiercely whilst being pulled away, and in his hand gripped something he would not release for anything.

Something he  _could_  not release, for anything.

And even across the waters in Satellite, yet other ‘consequences’ could be felt. 

When Yuusei had awoken from his daze, he wasted no time in picking himself up from where he’d fallen to flee back into the depths of the Old Momentum building. His form shrank down to that of the doll-like state he’d become accustomed to, and as he flew he sought the deepest, darkest recesses of the building he could possibly reach, if at least for a moment of solitude.

He flew there, and in the darkness hid. And only once he was assured of his isolation did he allow his mind to think back to what had occurred. To the friend he had seen and been unable to speak to, and to the friend he had viewed through a hazed veil of blue when the energies of Ccapac had surged through him. It was strange- that hadn’t happened before, to be honest.

Until then, when Ccapac’s card was played he had merely blacked out. The fact that, even if for a brief moment, he had seen what ‘it’ had…

He was the only one like this. None of the other Earthbound Gods had taken hosts like this. So then for what purpose had this one, he thought? Why?

He held his head, closing his eyes and shaking himself in a vain attempt to put it out of mind. Don’t think like that, he told himself, slowly opening his eyes again as the mutterings cackled through his ears. Don’t think like that! There was a way.

They would stop this somehow, there was a way…

Even if it meant he died again- if anything, he would have taken death a thousand times in exchange for this!

Yuusei took a shuddering breath, calming himself and stepping out from his hide away. Settle down he thought to himself, holding his arms close under the poncho. It would work out somehow he tried to tell himself, even as the mutterings cackled. It would.

“Yuuuuuseiiiii!” a familiar voice called out, the spirit in question jumping at the sound. He found himself shifting size to the more child-like of states almost in panic as Kiryu’s voice drew closer, and by the time his friend appeared he was fairly certain he had avoided being snatched up from the ground like some sort of doll at the least. “Yuusei!” his friend cheered, the tone almost seeming a little too positive; while he detested admitting this he could not ignore the fact that as of late Kiryu’s mental state had only been continuing to dip further. He did not wish to say it out loud.

But the fact remained that Kiryu’s ‘smiles’ did not mean anything good any more.

However as Kiryu came over he immediately stooped down to come closer to his level, and bringing his hand back for a moment the grin on his face somehow felt a little softer than the expression it had become as of late. “It’s back~” he laughed, albeit keeping the noise level down to a more appropriate level. “They thought they could keep it, but I made them give it back…” he added darkly, Yuusei’s unease entirely hidden by the inability to narrow his eyes as he wanted for the moment.

A deck of cards was held out at that moment however, and as his eyes moved to look at them he found himself no longer thinking of that. Instead, staring at the card which sat at the top he found himself struck quite silent. And, reaching out to take it from Kiryu’s hand he found himself gaining an expression he had not honestly held in a number of years, at least not without a blanket of falsehood or the influence of the momentum.

“ _ **My deck…**_ ” he managed to whisper, a slight stinging burn coming over his fingers as they made contact with Stardust. Even that was not enough to banish the smile however, and instead he held the deck close. “ _ **…Kiryu,**_ ” he began honestly, a few tears dotting his eyes. He hadn’t seen these cards in so long- To see them now, in such well kept condition… “ _ **Thank you,**_ ” he said honestly, his smile holding strong.

“Now you can fight too, nehhhh, Yuusei?” Ah-

Fight? he wanted to ask, looking up. And yet almost as expected it was something else entirely that came from his mouth, and as he listened he found himself paying attention more out of perverse curiosity than fear and detest.

“ _ **Aaah,**_ ” he heard himself say. “ _ **With this, I can definitely ensure our success against the Signers.**_ ” Why?

Why did it matter if  _he_  fought, he would never have been part of the equation before, he-!

…Why had Ccapac agreed to bring him back?

Why had Ccapac given him even a small bit of his own will.

Why was he _important_?

In the end he had found himself in Kiryu’s room, his friend searching around for something to better carry Yuusei’s deck in only to find himself called away from the room. And left alone in silence to his thoughts he found himself clutching the deck of cards almost like a security blanket, those questions still burning in the back of his mind as the voices eagerly fueled them as much as possible. Why?

Why did any of this happen?

In the end…

Only the gods knew the answer to that.


	25. The Earthbound Gods

‘ _What is the meaning of this, Ccapac-Apu!_ ’

He had expected as much as this from his brethren when he made this choice really. The fact that Uru and Cusillu had decided to wait until now to broach the subject was almost amusing actually, particularly when Ccarayhua agreed to play along- though given the loud-mouthed nature of the hummingbird that was Aslla Piscu, he found himself wondering if they hadn’t planned it.

And in the void where they resided, where Ccapac-Apu now only partially existed, the hummingbird fumed. ‘ _What possible reason could there be in fusing yourself with a mortal spirit? You have only made yourself weaker!_ ’

‘ _Have I?_ ’ he ‘asked’, chuckling darkly. And as Aslla Piscu fumed, the others listened, awaiting the explaination they had been patiently expecting for so long. ‘ _You are a fool, Aslla Piscu. What do you think will happen if we are defeated even **once**?_ ’

‘ _Defeated!?_ ’ the bird screeched, the others as well stiffening momentarily.

It was Ccarayhua who elaborated upon the enraged words, enlarged eyes turning upon Ccapac-Apu with a strangely narrowed glare. ‘ _Have you lost so much power you would rely on mankind then, Ccapac-Apu? Or are your loyalties wavering in ways you have yet to explain?_ ’

‘ _Hnhnhnhnhnhn…_ ’ How amusing!

‘ _Answer us!_ ’ Aslla Piscu demanded. ‘ _Are you traitor or no!?_ ’

‘ _Hn! I suppose it **would**  be foolish to expect a gossiping pest like you to think on this clearly. Tell me. On an entirely hypothetical note… What happens when we lose?_’

Before the two gods could snarl in response, it was Cusillu who spoke, Uru merely chuckling in the back. ‘ _We are sealed within the ground to await the next battle. That is nothing new,_ ’ he added almost warningly.

‘ _After all, defeating the dragon ends in the reverse until the same mark of time re-appears._ ’ Uru himself added, low laughter coming from his direction.

‘ _True…_ ’ Ccapac started in response, the chuckling stopping as the gods caught the tone he used. ‘ _However what if I told you that there was a way around that?_ ’

Rage. Rage flooded the expanse of darkness they sat within as the gods immediately spoke up. ‘ _You DARE to question our power!?_ ’ Aslla Piscu roared, Ccarayhua hissing in distaste.

‘ _What power could you possibly gain from siding with humans!_ ’

‘ _Siding? And just what about this do you see as ‘siding’?_ ’

Silence.

Uru spoke. ‘ _And do you have other reasons then, for placing yourself in such a position?_ ’

‘ _Well,_ ’ Ccapac murmured, ‘ _I would have thought that the ‘manipulator’ would have realized…_ ’ he ‘thought’, the spider across from him trembling in anger at the remark. ‘ _If I am tied to the spirit of a mortal man, then what happens when a gullible fool chooses to revive that spirit?_ ’

And again silence reigned, before Cusillu eventually chose to fracture it. ‘ _You follow._ ’

The response to that was nothing less than a shocked quiet, and Ccapac laughed. ‘ _Tell me my siblings, how much do you wish to **truly**  experience in the land of the living?_’

‘ _What point is there?_ ’ Aslla Piscu retorted in response, ‘ _It only happens if you LOSE! Which brings us back to our question Ccapac-Apu! Do you feel so weak that you would put such stock in a backup plan?_ ’

‘ _Does it look like that then?_ ’ As the gods narrowed their eyes the giant continued on. ‘ _Tell me, how much of the living realm’s pleasures have you enjoyed then, in the time your chosen servant has walked under your power?_ ’ That… Had not occurred to them. The fact that Ccapac had been free to speak to all the Dark Signers (something the others had already raged to him about in fact). The fact that he was free to  _eat._

Cusillu seemed to nod almost sagely. ‘ _Hnnnn. Even without death you bear potential for full control._ ’

 _‘You are acting curiously cunning this millennium, Ccapac-Apu…_ ’ Uru seemed to warn, laughter being his response.

‘ _Please… I am the ‘wanderer’. It’s in my nature to be able to plan at a moment’s notice._ ’

‘ _A ‘living’ body…_ ’ Ccarayhua murmured, tapping their chin in silence.

‘ _I may yet have a chance at that…_ ’ Aslla Piscu continued, their voice growing almost giddy with anticipation. ‘ _Perhaps you are not as fool as I thought, Ccapac-Apu!_ ’

‘ _And perhaps you not so blind!_ ’ the giant retorted. And with a darkening chuckle, he faded from existence. ‘ _Now then… Let us put this plan into play, shall we?_ ’

And in the darkness the five gods soon became four, trading looks and thoughts to another in silence. A strong chance it was indeed.

What, however, would the consequences then be for them?


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Written entirely by Gale for the purpose of this AU.

Yuusei was never one fond of being the center of attention, but these days, he was even less inclined to seek people out. He disliked being addressed constantly as this parasite that had taken his friend’s body, called a god for being its unwilling host and never acknowledged as the human he still was at his core. Even seeing Kiryuu hurt despite him being one of the few to still call him by his own name. It hurt, knowing that his friend was only succumbing deeper into his anger and hatred and knowing that he couldn’t do a damned thing to stop it. No, it was worse than that. He was forced to agree and promote the very ideas that were destroying him, kept from doing what he truly wanted by the very thing that had revived him, had given him a home in its body and the chance to address Kiryuu directly. 

As a result, when he did finally leave Kiryuu’s room and start wander the Dark Signer’s hideout, he decided to take as small a form as possible to avoid the notice of the others. Adjusting his spiritual body size meant that he could opt out of those dratted “special” robes that marked him as the sacred body of Ccapac, adopting simpler robes more like the Dark Signers. Ccapac Apu complained somewhat, but as long as no one was around to see, it was fine, wasn’t it? 

In the end, after all his wandering all Yuusei really did was exchange one dismal room for another more dismal, emptier room. That was fine. He needed some time on his own. He just needed to get away for a few moments and let the tears fall. How could everything have gone so wrong? 

The door creaked open. There was barely any time to hide himself. Hastily trying to wipe away his tears, he stumbled along the bed, barely managing to hide himself behind the thin, raggedy pillow at its head. He glimpsed two figures coming in, recognized the first voice that spoke. 

“I understand how frightening all this happening to you must be. Coming back so suddenly, you forget why you accepted your role in the first place. Just like the rest of us, you need time to remember, to think back to when you first lost your life, and find out why you came back. Once you find your purpose, you will understand, and you will no longer despair.” That was Misty. He never heard her speak with such a soothing, gentle tone since their first meeting, as if she was addressing some younger child. It reminded him of how Kiryuu used to talk to them sometimes during the days of Team Satisfaction; and still in the middle of his emotional distress, he let a small sniff escape him. 

Immediately, Misty zeroed in on the sound, her voice returning to that sinuous yet harsh tone he was used to hearing from her now. “Who’s there?! Show yourself!” Reluctantly, he poked his head out from behind the pillow. At the welcoming smile that crossed Misty’s face, he came out from behind it and wandered further down the bed. 

“Ah, Ccapac-sama.” Yuusei merely bowed in return, not wanting to get more into the god worship he knew would be coming from her. Instead, he focused on the shorter woman’s clear look of surprise growing on her face. It was no wonder. The form he had taken was merely a foot tall, and close to half of his height was taken up by his head…it made him look like a small doll as opposed to some mighty god. “I apologize if we disturbed you.” 

“ _ **It is no bother,**_ ” he murmured. “ _ **I** **was merely walking about…I didn’t expect to run into anybody.**_ ” 

“If you wish, we may leave…” 

“ _ **There is no need.**_ ” He didn’t want to inconvenience anyone. 

“Very well. Carly.” The smaller woman looked up, an almost lost expression on her face. “Stay here for a while. Communicate with your god, if you must. I will be back later if you need anything.” 

“O…okay…” 

“Ccapac-sama, if you still wish to remain here, you could communicate to her as well, perhaps help introduce herself to her god…” 

“ _ **I don’t pretend to understand the intentions of the others…but if I can be of assistance, I will be.**_ ” It was enough of an answer to please Misty, apparently, for she bowed and left.

The girl-Carly, was it?-sat down on the bed, and Yuusei wandered closer. He should have left. In time, she would likely be the same as the rest of them. But there was a sadness to her that he recognized, that feeling of being unwillingly torn away from what one knew best, that feeling of being lost and powerless. That feeling of accepting something, thinking it was for the best…and then finding you had only ended up in a worse situation than before. When she turned to him, her eyes were normal, the sclera still white. 

“So…” She held her hands out to him, and he crawled onto them, just barely fitting into the palms of her hands as he sat down. “You’re C…Ccapac-sama, huh…” 

“ ** _Please…_** ” He hesitated. Should he even do this? She was a Dark Signer now, wasn’t she? But that sadness of hers…it was much too similar. He couldn’t bear to see her deal with it any longer than she had to, and definitely not alone. “ _ **Call me Yuusei…**_ ” 

“Yuusei?!” He looked up in surprise. How did she know him? He didn’t recognize her at all… “You…you’re that Yuusei that Jack knew?” 

“ _ **Jack? You know Jack?**_ ” And immediately she launched into a tale of epic duels and heroism and bravery in the hospital, or something like that. It was admittedly amusing how much of the story sounded like excessive embellishment, but he let her indulge herself. From what he heard, she had been at the hospital when Kiryuu had gone after Jack, had been the one to hold his cards and make plays for him due to his arm being out of commission (he had won the Fortune Cup after defeating a psychic duelist, Iza-something, in the finals, but had been severely injured during the course of the duel). The duel had ended in a draw due to the hospital collapsing under Ccapac Apu’s power…but why couldn’t he remember anything? He admitted as much. 

“Ccapac Apu didn’t look anything like you at all,” Carly had said. “I mean, he was black and blue and glowy, like you, but he didn’t look like a cute doll…” Her previous surprise was even more understandable, now. 

“ _ **Mmn.**_ ” 

The conversation continued on in this vein. They talked about many things, about Jack, how he was doing and how he had grown, about Kiryuu and the other Dark Signers, about their respective pasts before they had died. Neither of them asked about why they were still alive. It was as if some sort of taboo was between them, an understanding of each other’s grief. They both knew what they were fighting against, that they were slowly becoming the antithesis of everything they had wished for before death. They both knew that touching on those topics would only hurry them down the road to ruin faster, would prompt their gods to speak to them and take them, and that there was nothing they could do to stop it. When a topic of conversation got too close to the present, one would fix the other with a sad stare, and silence would pass between them for a few moments before the other would quickly come up with another question. 

They had both paved their own paths to hell with their good intentions. They could do nothing but walk down them now. 

But for that night, at least, they could confide their worries and fears, watching their humanity slowly slip away from them.

When Yuusei came back the next morning, Carly’s sclera had turned black. Even so, against his better judgment, he had approached her. 

“Ah, Ccapac-sama, good morning!” He winced at the sanguine tone in her voice. It was an oily sort of satisfaction that was nothing to the bubbly cheerfulness he had managed to extort from her the previous night. He bowed, saying nothing. 

“I must thank you for your kind words the previous night,” and Yuusei looked up, letting hope enter him. “They helped me figure out what I wanted so much that I would defy nature for it. To have the one I love, safe and sound, and in his rightful place as King…wouldn’t that be wonderful, Ccapac-sama? Wouldn’t Jack be happy then? That was all I wanted, for him to be happy…” 

Yuusei wanted to scream. To cry out denials until his throat was hoarse, even when he knew that Carly would not hear him, would only hear the whispering of her god, just like Kiryuu. “ _No,_ ” he wanted to say. “ _Don’t do this. Don’t sentence Jack to our fate. Don’t bring him to hell. Don’t. Don’t. No. Stop. Please. Stop before you do something you’ll regret._ ” 

But he couldn’t. He felt Ccapac’s will take hold, felt his words shoved back down his throat, found other words escaping his mouth instead. 

“ _ **Yes…yes. Pursue your wishes with fervor, and you will fulfill your god’s wish…I am glad, Carly, that you have found your purpose in living once more.**_ ” 

She smiled, and her next words only made him shatter more inside. 

“Thank you, Ccapac-sama.” 

Yuusei did not visit Carly again. 


	27. Chapter 27

As the twins sat by Aki’s bed in the hospital, they found themselves at a loss for what they could do.

The doctors did not, it seemed, believe she would awaken.

And with that in mind, while the parents who had cast their chances aside with their mistakes so often before prayed for otherwise, Ruka found herself almost absently stroking the Kuribon in her arms.

It couldn’t be, right?

That it would end like this?

As Kuribon left her arms she found herself placing a hand over the arm where Aki’s signer mark lay, eyes closing over somewhat in pity and sorrow both. It wasn’t fair… For such a thing to happen, it wasn’t fair.

Distantly as she closed her eyes she felt a ‘pull’. And in response to the pull, she felt herself tug back, unwilling to let herself fall away. So in further response…

She pulled harder.

Brilliant light came from the Signer’s marks, and as Ruka’s eyes shot open there was a groan from the bed. And for a moment she found herself smiling, watching as Aki slowly opened her eyes to take in the building. “Ah… She woke up!” Rua cheered, grinning. “She-“

Aki spotted her parents.

“ _ **YOU**_ …”

Aki also spotted the duel disk on the side table.

“How  ** _DARE_**  you show your face!”

And also the deck, the twins found themselves realizing in almost blank response.

“Uh.” …Oops?

Perhaps next time something like this happened, it would be best to make sure the duel disks were kept in a separate room rather than at the side of Aki’s bed, though at least Rua did better in this duel.

Not that it spared Jack when he came in and claimed he would easily avoid the doctor’s attention in there due to Aki’s presence… But it was the thought that counted.

…Right?


	28. Rudger

It was the end of days for those of the light. Rudger stood before the center of the Old Momentum with the words of Uru the spider running through his mind, and the energies below churning to a speed of much greater intensity than ever before. It was enough that smoke seemed to begin to develop in fact, and it was as that smoke arose that Rudger found a smirk upon his face.

This would work. He could gather numerous souls for Uru in this way, and at the same time clear much of Satellite for the final battle field. This would work.

And as he looked to the momentum below he had to snort. To think, once upon a time he would have picked a different path.

“You would have liked that wouldn’t you, Sempai.” Hnhnhn… Hahahaha…

The smoke- fog, rather, began to gather, and as he continued to look down he spoke. “You wouldn’t believe what happened in more recent years while you were gone. I remember back when you were in charge of this place, the amount of light that filled it was almost blinding!” he called down with a dry tone. In fact at this point it probably would have been, to be honest.

“I prefer the darkness so much more… You never did,” he snorted. “Your night vision was horrible!” Couldn’t see two feet in the dark! He'd just about killed himself during the few minutes between a power out and a generator start up.

…He would always sigh in almost exaggerated relief when the power came back on, and look at the small photo he carried with him. The one with his wife and then infantile son.

“Hn. It would figure that your line would continue to outrank me, Sempai. You should be proud though," Rudger continued, chuckling. "Your son became a God, and one for the side of darkness at that. He’ll rule over _millions_.”

“He’s nothing like you however. I’m almost surprised,” he snorted. “With all the blathering you did about Momentum and your family I would have thought he’d at least be more talkative. He barely even speaks outside of our meetings- and that’s barely worth comparing,” he added with next to no hesitation.

“He’s not at all as sociable as you were. A good trait for a God. Gods are above their people after all- they need respect!” Though…

“He died a bit young to be honest.” That was fairly obvious, given the time between Zero Reverse and the arrival of Ccapac-Apu. “Admittedly he took after you. Not that he looks it most of the time,” Rudger added with another snort. “If anything he’s gotten shorter.” He made no comment on how appropriate he felt that to be, or rather inappropriate.

Ccapac-Apu was a god. Therefore, he would not question the choices that the ‘God reborn’ had made.

“You should see him,” he continued down to the spinning momentum as the black fog rose steadily upward, filling the room to the brim. “He bears the marks of the giant, the power… Hnhnhnn. To think you named him ‘Yuusei’,” he found himself chuckling, before the sound rose to a crazed cackle. “To think! AFTER ALL YOUR HOPES AND DREAMS,” he roared to the pits below as he laughed, “YOUR SON IS THE VERY ONE HELPING TO LEAD US! Do you hear that, FUDOU? YOUR SON, WHO YOU PUT ALL YOUR FOOLISH HOPES INTO WILL BE THE VERY END OF THAT LIGHT YOU HOPED FOR!”

…

His voice echoed and pealed through the walls of the chamber, and Rudger quieted. He stared at the blackness of the fog that now covered the momentum’s abyss and sneered.

“Think on that, ‘Sempai’; what path could possibly lead to our end now?”

And in the depths of the momentum, as Rudger unleashed his god’s great black weave, the spirit of the once physicist merely frowned, expression laced not with despair…

But instead, pity.


	29. Chapter 29

He was glad he’d trusted his instincts when ‘Hoshi’ had vanished.

When a dark chill seemed to permeate the air around him, and the waters they lived by seemed to grow even more viscious than before. If not for the pit growing in his stomach he wouldn’t have paid it more mind than he would in an approaching storm- get the kids to higher ground, bolt the doors, wait.

Somehow that didn’t feel like enough. Which was why he told them it was ‘time’.

“We’re leaving BAD area,” he told them, all five staring with wide eyes. Where they were, getting to the ‘better’ half of Satellite was nearly impossible in a group. They’d have to cross the crevice, or one of the bridges, typically guarded by those lying in wait for an unsuspecting victim.

But as he cut their protests short he assured them they would be safe. And, pulling out something he’d been working on from the moment Blackbird was finally repaired, he made his move.

It was a simple trailer. Not very safe at all really- but in this case, it would be enough.

“Hold on tight,” he told them all, and while there weren’t really any helmets, he was at least able to lend his own to the youngest. And as they smiled, he nodded, turning back to face forward.

The engine started.

The skies rumbled.

“LET’S GO!”

It would be close.

The moment they came within range of the bridge they were assailed- attacked by those who thought they could scavenge parts from their ride at the very least, salvage at least a bit of a trade-worthy prize.

He was prepared.

“HraaaAAAH-!”

Wings were not only meant for flying.

Those guys wouldn’t be getting up, legs ‘clipped’ as they were.

And so the bike continued across the bridge and down side streets, slowing to a quieter, safer pace as the children in the back huddled together. “We’re almost there,” he assured them. “Just a little longer right?”

Buildings began to fade, replaced by ruined, time flattened ground, green grass, trees…

The Blackbird came to a stop, and as he cut the engine the door to the relatively large ‘house’ before them opened.

And as Martha stepped out, Crow gave a weak wave. “…Hey,” He coughed, stepping forward. “I…” He… 

As Martha’s eyes narrowed somewhat, looking over the trailer full of kids and the condition of the bike’s wings, and Crow himself, he found himself rubbing the back of his neck uneasily. And in the end, forced a pained smile on his face to look her in the eye.

“…I’m home.”

Before another word could be said, a dark fog seemed to rise up in the distance behind them, prompting Martha’s response to be replaced by shock as she looked toward it. And as he and the kids turned they watched as it moved steadily closer, Crow’s eyes widened, mind snapping into action- “Get inside!” he shouted, running to grab them as he did so. “Go, get inside!”

“This way!” he could hear Martha shouting as her own attention was pulled to the larger concern. “I’ll show you around, now get inside- Crow!” she added, moving over to pull him back by the jacket he wore. “You as well!”

“GA-CK-“

It was for the best really that she had stopped him from investigating until the fog receded. Though the clouded sky remained when it had it meant he was spared of the fate of all those caught in the radius of it, a fact that became apparent to him when he walked no more than a few hundred meters from Martha’s home. And as he looked around, holding the bag he’d intended to use to hopefully carry a few vegetables back to the house, he frowned. What happened here wasn’t normal, far from it…

But just what  _had_  happened then?


	30. Chapter 30

“Really! What were you thinking taking them in a trailer like that!”

“It… It worked out in the end didn’t it?”

- _thwack_ -

“OW-” Crow winced, holding his head as Martha scowled. Same as she was last he saw, that was for sure.

 _Nothing_ got by Martha. “That’s no excuse. While it’s good you had the foresight to come here before that ‘fog’ came, you’re all very lucky to be alive.”

“Nmnnnn… Are you happy or angry?” he protested with a groan. He got a look for that. “Ahhh…”

Martha frowned, but the expression soon enough melted into a warm smile as she pulled the boy close. “You’ve grown up,” she told him, shaking her head. “I could barely recognize you when you came here…”

“Ah- I… I’m not that different!”

“It was a compliment,” she told him in response, before pinching his cheek with a light frown. “Though all these markers would lead someone to think otherwise! What sort of trouble have you been getting into?”

“AAAaaaack-! I swear they’re all old!” He rubbed his cheek, giving a mock pout. “Really, in front of the kids too…”

“Eheheheeee… It’s kinda funny to watch this happen to Crow-niisan for once!~”

“What-!”

“It’s not funny it’s weird!”

What, what-

Before he could say anything more the sound of beaten air and chopping blades came upon them, and from the open windows at the side a swift gale. Without thought they went outside, eyes widening as a helicopter came to touch down. And following that, doors opened, and-

No _way_. “Heh. Well would you look at that!” Crow laughed almost sarcastically as he grinned, watching a fairly stone-faced Jack, one arm in a cast and the rest of him either bandaged or bruised. “The ‘Dueling King came back!” One would have to live in the center of the earth not to know of what Neo Domino thought of Jack Atlas after all. Before he could say anything more though Jack scowled, and in the same moment moved to the side for others to follow.

Including a rather  _nice_  looking woman who looked as though she could kill a man with her eyes.

“And… You have a girlfriend!” he ‘finished’, raising his eyebrows. Well. That was  _not_  expected,  _at_  all-

“Gh- She is  _definitely not_ -!”

Jack quickly found himself cut off by the woman’s own retort, her eyes gaining an even  _stronger_  sensation of rage if it could be possible. “We have  _ **NOTHING**  _to do with each other,” she snarled, Crow looking somewhat taken aback for a brief moment. 

…Well in _that_ case. “So you’re available?”

“WHAT?”

“Jack!” Martha’s voice came over the air, and as she came over a few others exited the copter to stare. Martha, and even Crow however, paid them no mind- Jack’s reaction to the woman had their attention all too easily.

He had the sort of fact that one tended to get when a grandparent or elderly aunt was telling a particularly embarrassing story.

And Crow knew why.

Holding her hand out with a wide smile, Martha had Jack silent with three words- “A king always…”

“Mn-” Despite the slight redness his face was taking, he knelt down, taking the woman’s hand as he bowed to kiss it. “A king always shows respect to a lady,” he finished, standing as Martha’s hand was pulled back only to find himself wrapped in a hug. “MNG-  _Ribs-_!”

“Ohhhh Jack!” Martha quietly wept, very easily finding herself in ‘mother mode’ as she moved back. “Between you and Crow.!”

“…Mn.” Right.

The others stared, and as Rua and Ruka soon found themselves surrounded by other children Aki blinked. “I… What.”

“So… What’s your name then?” Crow asked, only for the woman to scowl and move to enter the house as others were ushered in.

“None of your concern!”

Well. Crow shrugged, shaking his head. Alrighty then, whatever.

He supposed he’d find out what was going on in a few moments anyways really.


	31. Chapter 31

As it turned out there as another who arrived in the helicopter, more specifically (much to Crow's mild amusement), another woman; Mikage, secretary to the very man who had given Jack his chance at city life, and for the moment, the woman who had most information on what was going on in Satellite. “Alright,” Mikage started as they settled inside, the woman unrolling a sheet of paper she’d carried along with her. “These are the locations of the four towers- no matter what tower it is, so long as one of the key cards is utilized,” she warned, looking to Aki and Jack as this was said, “They can be sealed.”

“…Sealed?”

As Crow came in Mikage shook her head. “It’s nothing you should worry about, only Signers-“

Aha…  _ **No**_. “I think I have plenty right to worry seeing how you’re talking about where I just finished evacuating a group of kids from,” he replied with a somewhat snappish tone, Mikage seeming to stare at him with a small bit of surprise.

Aki as well seemed to frown, Jack snapping them out of it. “Which one is the ‘Giant’ tower,” he growled, Mikage coughing somewhat awkwardly.

“Ah. You see, unfortunately Atlas-sama, we don’t actually know…” Quickly catching the sour expression the teen had in response, she changed the subject, focusing back on the map. “But as it is, it’ll be impossible for us to face all four one after another at once; we’ll need to split up.”

As she said this, she pulled out a marker, outlining a series of direct routes. “I only have one car- unless someone else can carry one of the others, that means two paths,” she continued, before the marker was snatched by Crow. “AH- I told you this isn’t any of your-“

“You’re sending two  _kids_  to face these guys,” he retorted with a scowl, Rua and Ruka sheepishly trading glances at the side. “The least I can do is lessen the load. Watch-” he continued, holding the marker above the points. “If someone fights whoever is at these towers, all that means is that it’s clear for someone to seal it, right?”

“Ahh…” While Mikage seemed to try and think of a response to that the others merely nodded, Jack in particular watching Crow with narrowed eyes.

“Then I’ll take the farthest tower,” Crow continued, drawing a line directly through from Martha’s home. It easily by-passed the ruin that was the ‘Old Momentum’, the spot sitting almost awkwardly between the next two closest towers. “From that, you can both head for the first tower, and split up from there. Whoever reaches where I am doesn’t have to worry about a duel then right? These ‘Dark Signers’ are bound to be guarding them after all,” he continued seriously, “Given how important they are.”

Aki frowned, crossing her arms as Crow handed the marker back to a thoughtful Mikage. “And what if you don’t win then?”

“He will.”

“Eh?” Crow blinked. That… He hadn’t expected Jack to say that- he hadn't seen him in three years, mind, but all the same.

As Crow’s look was joined by stares from the others, Jack merely repeated his words. “I’ve dueled with Crow before. He’ll win.” There was an underlying tone that said ‘as long as it’s not against me’… But in the end they chose not to address it.

Instead, looking back to the map and considering Crow’s words, Mikage nodded. “This could work then,” she decided in the end, looking back to Crow. “If you succeed, we’ll easily save ourselves anywhere from minutes to a full hour…”

Crow grinned, ignoring the somewhat worried frowns from the others. “Heh! In that case what are we waiting for? You said we had until sunrise didn’t you?” A small chorus of nods was the response and he turned. “Great! In that case-“

“Aaah! Crow-niichan!”

Ah-

He paused from where he’d already been heading for the door, the five children from before looking to him with frowns.

…Shit. “Crow-niichan..!” Hikari started with a pout, “How come you’re leaving already..?!”

“AH-“

“We just got here, why do you have to go?”

“Well- there’s a reason,”

“Crow-niichan doesn’t even have his helmet.” Kokoro added, the helmet in question still quite firmly attached to her head.

“… Haaaah…” He sighed, taking the helmet from the girl and stooping down for a moment. “Look- There’s something really big going on right now, alright?” he told them with a somewhat broken smile. “Something I can’t just sit and watch- cause otherwise, others could get really hurt you know?”

“But what about you then Crow-niichan?”

“Bah! Crow-niichan’s not weak!”

“That’s not what I meant Taiga!”

“Then what did you mean?” Ahahahahahah…

“Oi oiiii, stop fighting!” he ordered, the children sheepishly looking down with a nod. “Listen. You just be good for Martha alright?” he asked, opening the door with his helmet under his arm. “I’ll be back before you know it!”

“Mn…”

“Ah… Alright Crow-niichan!”

“Good luck Crow-niichan!”

“Good luck!!”

He left the building and headed for the Blackbird, his first move being to detatch the trailer at the end. As he did so the others came out themselves. Jack moved toward his D-Wheel without question, the device having been unloaded from the enormous copter earlier on, and took off toward his goal. Mikage in the meantime got to the car, the twins following. As for Aki…

She seemed to pause on her way to the vehicle, looking to Crow with an almost confused expression. “You… Why do those children care so much about you? Who are you to them?”

“Eh?” He blinked, staring at her bewilderedly. “I look after them.”

“But why?” Aki pressed somewhat, frowning. “Why bother?”

“Because no one else would,” he responded plainly, as though it were the most obvious thing. “No one in the B.A.D. area cares about that sort of thing.” The teen moved to mount his D-Wheel, and in a moment the engine started. For a brief moment, he waited to see if Aki would say anything else.

In the end however she said nothing, merely moving back to join Mikage and the others. And with that, with the sound of Jack’s D-Wheel leaving and the car with everyone else starting off, he moved the Blackbird toward the direction he would be heading in himself.

And with one last look back to Martha’s home, he drove.


	32. Chapter 32

Everyone had left the building again, save Rudger now.

As he himself knew of the meetings, there were four towers at which the Signers and Dark Signers would clash, and given the number of Signers revealed in the tournament that was the ‘perfect number’ to say the least. One Signer for each tower, right?

And in the end, likely someone to face Rudger as well he observed from the fact that the man currently stood in wait at one of the higher bridges of the Momentum chambers.

He stood there yes, but he did not stand in the other halls after all. And so Yuusei moved swiftly, floating through the halls closer to the further edge toward a separate doorway he knew existed. If it was only Rudger, then as long as he avoided spiders he would be fine… But the fact was he would rather not be in the building for the moment, if only because of all that would be happening this evening.

Perhaps if he was lucky, someone would-

“ _ **Mng-!**_ ” he fell back with a small shout in surprise, shaking his head as whatever he bumped into turned.

“What on earth?”

Yuusei looked up only to freeze in terror, a face all too familiar despite him having not seen it in three full years towering above him. Surely he couldn’t see him though, right? Surely he wasn’t as sensitive to his presence as the children had been, or as Crow, right?

Godwin narrowed his eyes and very much focussed on the spot where he lay, and Yuusei swallowed, slowly coming to his feet. Perhaps it was matters such as Signers and what lay before him that allowed him to so casually address Yuusei as a result, but regardless- “A spirit?” he asked almost to himself, his suspicions seemingly increasing. “Who are you?” he asked more clearly, Yuusei swallowing as he looked up.

How did he answer this? He was dead, how did he…

Yuusei slowly stood to bring himself to full height lest he find himself forced to deal with worse things, and with a swallow he answered, watching the narrow-eyed stare move to a somewhat shocked one. “ _ **…I am Fudou Yuusei,**_ ” he answered honestly, finding himself unable to look Godwin in the eye for very long. “ _ **I am- I Was…**_ ”

Godwin almost comfortingly enough did not react as he had expected. He did not act as though what he saw was impossible, nor did he act as though it were entirely normal. He merely looked over the ghost as though to read his face, before nodding. “I see,” he said instead, turning away. And after a moment, he began to walk away, Yuusei staring at him in confusion. “…You resemble your father, Yuusei,” he told him calmly. “Outside your more ascended traits of course.”

“ _ **Ah-**_ ” His father-? “ _ **Wait!**_ ” he shouted, taking a step forward as the man vanished down the hall. “How did you know-“

A door closed between them, and Yuusei stood in place, hand still outstretched for a few moments before falling back to his side. Dimly, he found himself thinking back to when he had first discovered he had died. The somewhat pitying look that he had seen in Godwin’s face then, before the man had walked away.

He stood there in silence for quite some time before moving again, shrinking down to child-size and turning back to his goals in leaving the building. And all the while, he wondered why Godwin had been there. Why he had so casually ignored what was before him, why-

When he finally exited the Old Momentum building, he found himself quite abruptly unable to wonder any longer. Instead he felt a familiar, unwanted shudder down his spine, pain wracking his body as he bit back a choked cry. This was not like before, with meetings. This was not the kind of ‘pull’ that merely batted him aside in annoyance. It was a determined snarl for control of his being, and despite all his resistance he found himself almost entirely locked to the back of his mind, limbs moving against his will the moment he attempted to turn in some direction other than expanse ahead.

The only thing that prevented it from being control in the complete sense was the fact that he still had his sight, and in a sense, his speech. Speech encouraged by the mutterings in the back of his mind, mutterings which threatened to take even that.

And as his body hovered and floated forward on its own accord, he soon discovered why. As a D-Wheel he recalled studying so curiously began to pass the hill he was floating over, entirely ignorant to his presence.

A D-Wheel heading directly for the tower of the Giant.

This was why they wanted him to duel he realized. This was why they had allowed him the comfort of his deck, and of his cards.

Because to the one ahead of him, the one who was coming to a stop as his shadow slowly became visible to him…

Only these cards would truly petrify this threat.

“ _ **Stop,**_ ” he called out, eyes down cast as he looked to the duelist below. And at this point the D-wheel did entirely that, engine cutting in an instant as Crow froze and snapped his eyes to the side where the voice had come from.

“Yuu-” He stiffened. “… _Hoshi_!?”

And as the poncho furled about him in the growing wind, he held silent. He allowed despite the pain it caused his chest, his body to slowly shift in size as it had but moments before, taking the form he had almost entirely abandoned for so long. With limbs stretching to their original size, and a face becoming not merely similar but identical in shape as a long dead silhouette appeared before Crow.

And Crow, shocked to silence, merely watched as Yuusei bowed his head to look down at his ‘opponent’. “ _ **I cannot let you go any further Crow,**_ ” he stated honestly, the duelist beneath him shaking his head in disbelief.

“No,” he quietly whispered, eyes wide and wavering. “No… This is impossible,” he called out, Yuusei merely bringing a hand to the air as he felt a sort of power develop around it. “YOU’RE-“

“ _ **Dead?**_ ” he heard himself ‘ask’, his control slipping at long last as Ccapac locked his consciousness back. He felt his face twist into a wicked smirk, and with a few short hand movements the stage was set. “ _ **Yes. But in other ways, very much alive. And with the power I have gained through this,**_ ” he continued, throwing his hand back as blue light followed to create both a ‘disk’ of sorts and even a place holder for the cards of his deck and hand, “ ** _I will end your mortal existence with no effort at all!_** ”

Crow stiffened where he stood, and as he gripped his D-wheel’s handles he trembled. “You… You’re asking me to duel you!?” he cried, shaking his head. “When after all this…” After… “You played with my _KIDS_!” he roared, eyes wide with betrayal, confusion and rage all at once. “You gave them a name, you came into our home! AND NOW YOU'RE HERE- AND YOU'RE..." He choked, shaking his head. "WHAT CHANGED BETWEEN THEN AND NOW?” he cried, staring at the ethereal form his friend had taken. “…What  _happened_  to you,” he wept, eyes watering the longer he looked to his 'friend'.

And from the back of his mind Yuusei felt himself break, Ccapac responding to the young man with words that could be no more false than they were true.

“ _ **I became a GOD,**_ ” ‘he’ answered coldly. “ _ **The Giant of the Earthbound, and rightful ruler of all beneath my level of power!**_ ”

Crow stared in horror for but a moment, but in the end bowed his head and turned away. “…Is that so?” he asked, silence surrounding them before being replaced by the sound of the engine. Then… Then in that case, he decided with a bitter swallow, there was no choice.

His fists clutched the handles of the d-wheel, and with the click of a button the field appeared.

“Have it your way,” he forced himself to say, tears still running down his face. 

“ _ **Duel.**_ ”


	33. Chapter 33

What kind of mockery of dueling was this, he found himself almost idly thinking as he drove, his d-wheel following after the floating form of the god-  _Yuusei_  he reminded himself as he bit his lip- and never truly managing to pass him. As though they did not need a track to duel, but were instead following some unseen ‘boundary’ he had created himself.

…The cards were drawn, but in the end Crow found himself thinking, he could do nothing.

“ _ **You agree to duel and yet you refuse to move?**_ ” Yuusei taunted, his expression tight with contempt. “ _ **Pathetic. You’re only alive because you hesitate,**_ ” he sneered, raising one hand and doing not but slightly move his fingers before the cards he had appeared before him. “ _ **I’ll take the first move then,**_ ” he continued, Crow grinding his teeth.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” he shouted upward, his ‘friend’ and ‘opponent’ playing his cards. “We all tried to do something that night!”

“ _ **And yet here you are.**_ ”

“GH-” Somewhat frozen as Yuusei ended his turn, Crow looked down, trembling. “You…” He drew his card and swallowed. “Don’t you realize how quickly we would have traded places with you!?” he cried up to him, voice already growing hoarse from his cries.

In the back of his mind Yuusei wanted to say that he never even blamed him for surviving. He had never even thought of what they would have done, because to him it didn’t matter- as long as they were alive, as long as they were safe!

Instead however Ccapac sneered, looking upon their opponent with naught but falsified contempt. “ _ **What does will matter when all that exists is proof of otherwise?**_ ”

And as Crow looked to him in shock he was again rendered silent. Rather than argue once more he continued his move, sending forth an attack- however in contrast to what his opponent had likely expected, the god countered-

A move which caused Crow’s D-Wheel to skid and slide against the ground as he struggled to reign it back into control, forced to end his turn.

Ccapac continued to taunt his friend. Filling the field with monsters of old and attacking where he could, destroying traps, spells… “ _ **All you have done is bury yourself in self-made assurances!**_ ” ‘he’ snarled, his opponent’s face hidden by the helm and yet all too easy for Yuusei himself to imagine. “ _ **You didn’t even know who I was when I stood right before you!**_ ”

“You were dead!” Crow protested, “What was I meant to think?”

Ccapac made his move, and under the force of the attack Crow shuddered and swerved yet again. And the god  _laughed_ , a low chuckle reverberating in the air. “ _ **A true ‘friend’ would have known wouldn’t he?**_ ” he taunted, Yuusei screaming from the back of his mind to make his voice his own. “ _ **That even DEATH does not hold one back! I will not summon my true form before you,**_ ” he continued with narrowed eyes as he grinned. “ _ **But make your next move wisely; I have much darker things in store…**_ ” Darker?

But these cards were his, he wanted to protest. His, and his alone. There was nothing in there he didn’t know of, nothing! Nothing that spoke of the things Ccapac was implying!

…Was that truly the case, the mutterings laughed, Yuusei’s thoughts stopped cold by the words. Was that really true?

And his mind filtered through the cards at his disposal, through the cards of his hand and his deck. Through the cards he had, through all he recognized, and above all-

There was something in there which was not his own, he realized quite suddenly, the cards of the extra deck seeming to shuffle through his mind. Something there that had appeared through ‘his’ power alone.

And he wanted to scream to his friend in warning. Wanted to shout to him that whatever he set in his defense, it  _would not work_!

Because there was a card in his deck that was not his, and it was fore that reason his ‘tributes’, not tuners, were prepared. It was for that reason that, seemingly backed into a corner, his opponent had moved into defensive play. And in the end, ‘defensive’ meant a set pair of cards to join another one, and nothing more.

“WE WERE  _FRIENDS_!” Crow cried upward as he ended his turn, again pausing in his action to plea with the spirit. “YUUSEI!”

“ _ **Yuusei Fudou no longer exists,**_ ” ‘he’ responded, voice hard as steel as Yuusei pulled at mental bonds. “ _ **He died with Kiryu Kyosuke!**_ ”

“… _Kiryu_?” Crow repeated, voice seeming to waver. He had known Kiryu was dead, oh there was no doubt in that.

But why would Yuusei bring him up if was dead and _gone_?

“ _ **It’s my turn!**_ ” Ccapac instead announced, his host wailing from the back of his mind. And with two tributed tuners he summoned forth a creature Crow had never seen, a monster whose power would create his end. Because even if he attacked with this ‘dark synchro’ he was summoning, it would be over. Even then. “ _ **A true pity you won’t live to see the last of ‘Team Satisfaction’, Crow!**_ ” ‘he’ taunted’. The ‘dark tuner’ tore through the parts of his small monster, and in its negated charge of power another creature appeared.

Yet from the back of his mind, he could still feel light. From the back of his mind as the dark synchro prepared to attack the face down ‘Vayu’ in order to destroy it, he could feel it. He could reach for it…

“You, and Kiryu,” Crow was calling, shaking his head. “HOW WOULD WE HAVE KNOWN YOU EXISTED LIKE THIS!?” he cried. “How could you expect us to realize..?” And as he shook his head, choking on his words he struggled to continue. “We were all affected by what happened,” he protested more quietly. “NONE OF US EVER WANTED THAT SORT OF THING TO HAPPEN!”

“ _ **And I have told you what use is ‘wanting’? What use,**_ ” Ccapac roared, pulling his hand back in preparation to signal his attack, “ _ **Can there possibly be in- GLKH- HaAHKKK-!**_ ” Chocking sounds cracked through the air and his hand stiffened, seeming to crack. Without warning he clutched his head with his other, and from within, Yuusei grabbed at the light he had felt.

The mutterings fluttered and swarmed with rage. What was he doing, it cried, the light itself searing his hands. Didn’t this hurt? Didn’t he realize that this alone could destroy their very being?

He’d realized the moment he touched it, didn’t 'he' know? And so…

“ _ **ACTIVATE SPEED SPELL… ZERO REVERSE!**_ ” he forced out, a card appearing in his hand as it began to smoke. As tears made their way from his eyes, his voice cracking under the strain of control and the searing flames that burned invisibly at his body. “ _ **By removing two speed counters,**_ ” he explained aloud, forcing his words to come from his own thoughts, and his own mouth as Crow stared in terrified confusion, “ _ **I revive a monster that was destroyed this turn! I choose Junk Synchron!**_ ” he continued, the monster arising from a small portal. “ _ **And now!**_ ” And now…

“… _Yuusei_?” Crow asked, voice sounding chocked and weak from where he drove.

The mutterings screamed but he ignored it, taking hold of the light in his hands. It burned! It burned the voices wailed, Yuusei himself feeling all too well what they screeched for. But if this light burned him then so be it then! SO BE IT- “ _ **CLUSTERING HOPES BECOME A NEW STAR! BECOME THE PATH ITS LIGHT SHINES UPON!**_ ” he cried, his eyes squeezed shut as the cards moved to his will. “ _ **SYNCHRO SUMMON!**_ ” Yuusei roared, shooting forward in flight as the burning light surrounded him. ‘yuusei!’ he could hear someone shout, though be it from below or else where he could not tell. ‘YUUSEI!’

Come back.

“ _ **TAKE FLIGHT, STARDUST DRAGON!**_ ”

“ _rnnnAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOooooo_!”

As the roar sang through the air white flames briefly filled it. And as they blew back against him he could not help but scream in agony, thrown back behind Crow as their path began to move toward the Giant’s tower. And as Yuusei lowered himself somewhat, coming closer to Crow’s level, he wept.

And Crow…

“Yuusei… What did you do?!” he protested, eyes wide with confusion. “Why would you-“

“ _ **I’m sorry, Crow,**_ ” he cut in, smoke blazing behind him as he looked to him. His face was illuminated in a more than horrifying manner by the light of Stardust's fires, the normally peaceful white seeming to bring nothing but destruction. Tears that fell merely evaporated into steam on the air, and his face seemed to crack almost. From the smoke of his clothes scraps of fabric and even chips of what almost looked like stone blew back to the ground, and yet upon his face was a pained and sorrowful smile. “ _ **Please believe me when I say I’m sorry…**_ ”

And as Crow stared in stunned silence, his friend continued.

“ _ **I never wanted to say all those things,**_ ” he wept, shaking his head. “ _ **I just wanted you to know that…**_ ”

“I…” Crow swallowed, shaking his head. “Of course you wouldn’t have said those things! But why… _HOW_ ,” he cried, his friend merely shaking under the continually eroding power of the Stardust dragon.

“ _ **Because I couldn’t stop Kiryu from falling on the wrong path,**_ ” he began, his smile breaking as he spoke. “ _ **And because of that, this power that he used to revive me brought with it something else… But with Stardust..!**_ ”

The dragon sang from above, and from across the field where their cards sat he felt his legs dissolve completely, body beginning to destroy itself more readily. He did not have much time.

The same thing banishing Ccapac after all, was 'banishing' himself.

“ _ **Ccapac-Apu’s power is mine,**_ ” he admitted regretfully, “ _ **But I could not let him destroy what I left behind! Because I was happy to see you that day!**_ ” he shouted, tears steaming from his face as quickly as they fell upon Crow’s own. “ _ **Even though I couldn’t speak without his voice replacing mine… Even though I couldn’t show you who I was! Because you SURVIVED!**_ ” Yuusei screamed. “ _ **And with your own power you helped others to survive! And now…**_ ” He looked to his friend and found an expression of sorrow filled realization coming his way, silent sounds of ‘no’ coming from Crow’s mouth.

No, Crow wanted to say, trembling with regret. Don’t do this.

No, he wanted to plea, even with this, it only made it harder.

No…

 _Don’t die again_.

“ _ **STARDUST ATTACKS!**_ ” Yuusei announced, knowing that regardless of what lay before him it would mean his end. “ _ **CROW!**_ ” he pleaded, the broken smile yet upon his face. “ _ **…Finish this.**_ ”

“Gh…” No… “I…” No, no, no! The cards flipped over in succession, the first shattered to dust and the other arising in response. “Vayu is destroyed and sent to the graveyard- activating this trap,” he forced out with a choke, his friend nearly turning to weakly face the ground with a knowing smile. “Blackwing Revenge! Special summoning two Black Crest Tokens,” he continued, looking to Yuusei with a pained expression. “Yuusei!”

“ _ **In that case, my turn ends,**_ ” the spirit calmly replied, leaving no spells or traps, and only his dragon to protect him. “ _ **Make it count, Crow.**_ ”

Dammit…

Dammit!

With a normal summon, he had a level three tuner to the field. Combined with his two tokens, he had seven levels. And then…

Special summoning ‘Aurora’ meant he had Armor Master’s power to the field again, the effect removing the original from play as well as its materials. And from the grave Vayu’s effect activated, allowing him to do similarly from with he needed to bring about the Armed Wing.

Armor Master Aurora attacked, and the wedge was placed. And as it was removed from Stardust it too began to crack, just as Yuusei himself was. And with another card, the pieces were in place.

“I activate the trap Blackwing Bombardment,” he wept, unable to look to his still smiling friend. “And in this moment Aurora is treated as a Synchro Monster. By tributing her,” he continued through choked sobs, “Armed Wing gains her attack power…”

2500 and 2300, combining to make far more than what Stardust had. That alone would have been enough, but-

But he…

“ _ **DO IT, CROW!**_ ”

DAMMIT!

“ARMED WING ATTACKS!” he cried, the monster spearing his opponent’s dragon with ease. “DESTROYING STARDUST FOR 4800 POINTS OF DAMAGE!”

“ _ **H-GK….**_ ” The attack connected.. “ _ **HHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!**_ ” And in the blast Yuusei was launched back and into the ground, Crow barely wasting a moment to follow as Stardust’s glittering remains seemed to fall over the spirit’s still decaying body.

“Y… Yuusei!” Crow cried, D-Wheel skidding to a stop as he hopped off to come to his friend’s side. “YUUSEI!”

The spirit merely smiled, even as his robes sagged about his almost vanished form. And as Crow fell to his knees, words stuck in his throat, Yuusei gave a hoarse laugh. “ _ **…I’ve waited… So long…**_ ” he began, Crow’s fists clenched and shaking as both friends wept, the tears still evaporating off of the spirit’s form as the rest of him smoked. “ _ **Trapped in the back of my mind… Hearing myself say all those things…**_ ”

“Yuusei…” No… “It wasn’t your fault, Yuusei!”

“ _ **I am dead, Crow,**_ ” he rasped, eyes closing over as he laughed weakly. “ _ **I have been dead for three years, unnaturally bound to this living plane.**_ ” No… No, no, NO!

“Yuusei…”

He grunted, and with a somehow still present and shaking hand held toward his friend a card. And not wanting to refuse his again dying friend the right of his final will Crow swallowed, moving to place his hand in Yuusei’s own about the card.

And taking it back… “…Stardust… Dragon…”

“ _ **I won’t need him where I’m going,**_ ” Yuusei whispered, closing his eyes completely. “ _ **So instead, I want you to look after him. …Crow…**_ ” he whispered, voice beginning to fade. “ _ **Thank-**_ ”

“ _NOOOOOOOOOOO_!!”

As a shrill and nigh bloodcurdling screech came over the air Crow found himself jumping back, eyes snapping up to the top of the hill Yuusei had been slammed against. And as Yuusei weakly opened his eyes an expression of hopelessness appeared over his cracked and burned face, the source of the third voice trembling in rage and fear alike.

“NOT AGAIN!” Kiryu roared, belting down the hill as Crow forced himself to back away lest he be barrelled over by the force of the once dead man. “NOT AGAIN!” he repeated insanely, throwing a card toward Yuusei’s form. “I won’t let you die this time… NEVER!”

K-Kiryu was… In a sense he’d known that he would have to meet him given Yuusei’s words as Ccapac, but- “Kir-“

The card connected with Yuusei’s form and in an instant whatever Crow had to say was cut short by a howling scream. And as he turned back to his friend in horror it seemed every part of his being glowed, a cold brilliant blue filling the air. The screaming was constant. It needed no breath to fuel and it rang through his ears with a steadily increasing level of agony, the light pulling into the card that Kiryu had thrown.

And as the light was absorbed entirely the card fell, the shout fading upon the air. The card stared upward as Crow looked to it in disbelief, Kiryu stepping toward it with a low, crazed chuckle.

“Hnhnhn… Hnhnhaha… Hahahahahahah… Nothing will separate us,” he ‘warned’, body trembling as he picked up the card. “No one. None at all…” With a manic grin his gaze snapped upward, the man looking to his old friend with a laugh. “Hnhnhn… Hello, Crow!” he cackled, the mark of the giant pulsing on his arm. “Come to fight?”

Frozen with shock he couldn’t answer for the longest time, stepping back to bump into his D-Wheel as his grip on Stardust both tightened and faltered. “You… You just…” He’d sealed him in that card- that was the only way he could describe it. Tied him to the object, barring him even from death, he'd done  _worse_ than kill him, after all that!

With grinding teeth and clenched fists he bowed his head, fixing a darkening glare toward the one whom Yuusei had died for those years ago. And as he slid the card into his extra deck he growled. Yes.

He would fight!

“You’re not Kiryu,” he announced coolly, as if to justify what he was about to do. “Not at all.”

And as Kiryu grinned, flames erupted from the ground to create the end corner of a track, his D-Wheel illuminated at the top of the hill. “Hnhnhn… I guess that’s a ‘yes’~”


	34. Chapter 34

As the duel began many others paused in their course to stare toward what had ironically been the furthest tower from them all. Unlike the first duel Crow had taken, where Stardust was clearly visible only to those within the short radius after all, the duel against Kiryu meant the coming of the Giant’s ‘true power’ in a sense. The appearance of the enormous geoglyph, flaming and hovering, marking the track for all to see even from the farthest reaches of Satellite.

The monkey’s glyph had been activated as well, some time ago. By the time Crow’s duel began however it had long since faded, the first of four towers sealed, and Mikage’s car quickly making tracks toward the tower they were to deal with next.

And on the opposite end of this tower Jack would look up from where he had only just now come in range of the area he would likely duel in, narrowing his eyes in both annoyance and, not that he would admit it, perhaps even worry. It would seem that he was not to face the giant’s marked one as he had hoped.

Though as Jack would soon discover, there was yet another reason for him to be fighting here.

And at the tower of the giant two d-wheels roared, taking off toward the coming turn at the track while both snarled at the other- one in rage, the other twisted amusement, one soaked with a drive for vengeance and the other for vengeance tainted in sorrows of the present and memories of the past. After all, to see this?

Kiryu had never been like  _this_. He could remember thinking something similar soon after Team Satisfaction had successfully taken over the entirety of Satellite, their worn and yellowed map covered entirely by black. Back when rather than the friend who had taken them under his wing to create a team… Rather than the one who had sought to unite the ruined city to make it something  _more_ , he watched as a dream became an obsession and as obsession drove him to total insanity. Turning on anyone who so much as held a card in their hand in a paranoid attempt to keep the control, regardless of age. Searching for anyone left alive from those gangs they had successfully taken down.

That had been why he left.

That had been why Jack left.

However Yuusei had remained behind. And as he thought back to Yuusei’s final words in their duel, he almost wondered what would have happened if they'd stayed. After all-

‘ _I couldn’t stop him from taking this path!_ ’

 _At least **he** had tried then!_ he wanted to shout to him now, but all in all it was too late, wasn’t it? Yuusei was gone.

And it was this man's fault.

“You almost killed him Crow~” Kiryu was shouting to him now, eyes wide and grin stretched over his face in almost unnatural form. “I should have known I had no one left after all! Hehehnhnhnnnn!”

“Gh…”

As he grimaced Kiryu continued, passing him just barely as they hit the corner. “Only Yuusei came with me… Only he understands the pain of  _death_!” he continued with a cackle. “Perhaps, if I showed you as well that would change? HnhhnhnhAHAHAHAAAAAA!!”

“Tch- Kiryu!” he roared, driving ever quicker as his ‘friend’ made his move. “Don’t you realize at all what you put Yuusei through?!” he cried, “The pain he was in, watching you do all of this?”

Before receiving his answer he cried in shock, struggling to keep the bike on track as he was slammed back and against the flames around them. And though they burned fiercely, the pained yelp echoing through the air, he managed to pull himself back to his senses and into the duel once again. “Don’t talk as though he’s _DEAD_ ,” Kiryu snarled visciously, his grin replaced with a menacing scowl. “He’s more alive than you’ll ever be!~ HnhEHAAH-hAHAAAAA!”

“Ngh…” Damn it all!

Damn it, damn it damn it!

Why couldn’t he realize? he found himself asking with narrowed eyes, watching cards he’d never even heard of appear to the field. As monsters with faces and names just as hopeless as how he felt for the moment floated in place around the bike, the ‘infernity’ monster seeming to hold an expression not  unlike Yuusei’s had been upon his initial appearance.

Why didn’t Kiryu see?! Why?

‘ _I couldn’t stop him from taking that path_ ,’ Yuusei seemed to echo in his mind, the teen’s thoughts drifting to the dragon he’d put in his deck. This monster- The thing that Yuusei had summoned and put faith in even as it destroyed him, only to pass it to him in the end, and with it his last words-

He couldn't simply leave things as they were. “My turn,” he announced as he drew his card, eyes filling with resolve. For Yuusei then, he told himself, looking over his hand with a nod. For Yuusei!

He would open up Kiryu’s eyes no matter what path this duel took!


	35. Chapter 35

It was like the duel with Yuusei, though he had a feeling that would be the case.

“Rnn _nAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR_ -!“

That did not make the damage from the Hundred-Eyes Dragon hurt any less however, and it was just his luck that he had this trap- the damage was done but the monster remained where it was, and while the result was a less than healthy level of lifepoints he forced himself to drive on regardless.

‘Handless combo’. For a duelist to rely on a strategy entirely dependent on having nothing, placing faith entirely in what the deck handed them in a moment, well- 

It was said that by looking at a duelist's deck, you could see their very soul after all.

He struggled to regain his breath and from the side Kiryu merely laughed, wide eyes staring him down as he looked to him through the screen. “Are you enjoying it?” he laughed, Crow’s grip upon the bike handles tightening. “Don’t die just yet!” Kiryu added almost ‘warningly’, chuckling with the same dark tone as he’d held through the duel. “We’ve only just begun, Crow!~”

And in this case he would not deny that, he found, swallowing back a snarl.

However now?

“My turn!” he shouted, drawing his card. And with one quick summon he had the tools needed for a Synchro upon the field, all that he needed to at least turn this around. With what he had in his hand he had a special summon ready as well in fact, and with that he put his strategy into play.

With a synchro summoned Armor Master. With one smaller monster yet remaining on the field. And with a cry of rage he moved, pointing his monsters forward. “Armor master’s effect!” he announced, attacking Kiryu’s dragon without care for what came next, ignoring his opponent’s howling laughs of futility.

“You’re a fool!” he cackled in response to the strike, even as his opponent fixed him with grim, half dead eyes. The laughter rang through his ears and made his very bones shudder with unease, the expression on Kiryu’s face only serving to make things worse. “You think that will work, _I’LL TEAR YOUR BODY THROUGH TO THE BONE_!” he howled wildly. “Until not even your _soul_ remains!” he cried as Crow scowled.

No. “Look again!” he snarled, cracks appearing along the surface of Hundred Eyes Dragon. “Your monster doesn’t have any power now..! Which means your trump is gone! VAYU ATTACKS!” Crow announced, the monster charging the dragon with ease despite the minimal damage resulting. “AND HUNDRED EYES IS DESTROYED!”

That should have been it, really. That should have set him on a path for an easy win, leaving Kiryu with little defenses in the next turn.

Instead however, Kiryu’s elation increased. “Heheheheheh… heHEHEHAHAHAHAHA… HAHAHHAAAHAHAAAAA!!!”

This did not bode well. “You… What the hell are you laughing about!?” he questioned, voice somewhat laced with fear. “I destroyed your strongest monster!” Crow continued almost in an attempt to assure himself of that fact. “How could this possibly benefit you?!”

“Hundred Eyes Dragon’s effect activates…” Kiryu began to 'explain', chuckling lowly. “When he’s destroyed, I add one Earthbound monster from the deck to the hand,” he continued, his laughter growing and wavering in its instability. “THANK YOU, CROW!” he cackled, fixing him with the same wide eyed stare from early on, “You’ve made _him_ appear! And now,” he announced as the card was moved from deck to palm, “I’LL LET YUUSEI SHOW YOU WHAT PAIN IS..!”

“You…” Bastard, he thought to himself, bastard, monster… To do that to him… To say these things..! “What do I have to do,” he spoke with a shuddering roar, “FOR YOU TO REALIZE THAT YOU’VE JUST DESTROYED HIM..!?”

”’ _DESTROYED’_  him?!” Kiryu roared back, accusation saturating his tone. “You think I _killed_ him..!? You think that I made things worse..!? I  _saved_  him…” he hissed, his scowl twisting back into its manic grin. “I moved beyond even _death_ to save him! They thought they could avoid me, wait until I was dead and gone… They were  _afraid_  you know!” he giggled, Crow swallowing back a wash of fear and disgust both. “They wouldn’t  come in, even when they thought I was on my knees  _dying._  They knew what I’d do for Yuusei… Not like  _you_!” Kiryu snarled through his teeth, his opponent’s own hardened rage building. “Not like Jack! He even had the nerve to leave, but I showed him!” he cackled harshly, eyes seeming to stare off at nothing. “ _I showed him_ …” Showed him what?

His thoughts were drawn back to the condition Jack was in when he arrived, and to the more than precise demand he’d made as they planned their attack-

‘ _Where is the Giant’s tower_ ’, he’d said, Crow stiffening with the realization.

…Kiryu had fought Jack.

Something told him that it hadn’t gone well. “Tch… You didn’t bring him back alone,” he hissed, looking to Kiryu with a steadied resolve. “You brought him back only to become a prisoner in your place!” he accused further, Kiryu growling in response.

“You dare-!” The growling cut and slowly he grinned. “It doesn’t matter,” he decided, voice breaking under a series of laughs. “I’ll show you now, I’ll show you!” he cried, Crow’s turn having come to its end long ago whilst he had been speaking. “It’s my turn! Watch!” Kiryu announced almost desperately. “I tribute Infernity Archfiend and Infernity Necromancer,” he announced as he brought his card down, “In order to summon the Earthbound God Ccapac-Apu..! YUUSEI..!” Kiryu roared, the tributes bursting into pillars of flame that shot far up above as the move was made. “SHOW YOURSELF..!”

For a brief moment Crow found himself stunned, the fires spinning and coiling about the flames of the opposing tribute to combine into one. They smoothed and solidified to bring about the very shape of the one he had dueled just moments prior, and as he looked to him, Kiryu’s insane cheers fading to the back of his mind, it seemed as though Yuusei was almost confused…

And then quite suddenly sound came rushing back to him in a brutal cut to reality, the spirit above them going from bewildered to agonized in but an instant.

“ _ **Ahhhh-**_ ” His body stiffened and tensed, cracks echoing through the air as they snapped and stretched- he struggled to do as little as bring his hands to his face in his pain, and as he continued to fight against some unseen force Crow watched as his body  _grew_.

As more than fear became visible upon Yuusei’s face, as emotions which surpassed mere horror filled his being, and in the action upon Crow’s as well.

“ _ **Ahh- hHHAAAAAAH-KLG-!**_ ” Choked sounds came instead of screams. “ _ **KALCK-**_ ” Gagging sounds, sounds which could barely be called as much. “ _ **HRLKKG-!**_ ” And yet as short and inaudible as they were the pain they evoked was total. And as he struggled to make even the most basic of cries already over sized hands clawed at his disappearing throat, their tips appearing as though chopped off or even stunted.

His hair flattened against his head, and with the size he was already he began to sink to the ground far ahead of them, legs crashing against the earth as the cloth of his robes seemed to merge with his body itself. And still his cries filled the air, distorted by distance and already present mutations. Gargled, howling moans accompanied by steady lines of tears as his face rounded and began, or rather continued, to dissolve.

There was already no nose, and most of what he wore was indistinguishable from his body. The markings of the Giant pressed against his form as it seemed to fight against itself, Yuusei seeming to try curling upon himself while struggling to stand all at once-

“ _ **gGLKAAAUHG- AAAAAAUUUUUGK-**_ ” No…

No…

Only one more cry could be heard as he threw his head heavenward, but it was not for lack of trying, his mouth opening as wide as it could only to stitch itself together with sinuous threads of black to seal it entirely. And it seemed that as this happened he had finally ‘broken’. His hands slowly moved back to his sides as his eyes fought to stay open, rolling back toward his head only to vanish from sight. His hair by this point no longer existed.  Nothing of Yuusei existed.

And as Ccapac stood with no resistance to flex its hands, Kiryu’s laughter rang through the air as it had been the entire time.

Laughing. He was  _laughing_  as this had happened, as it _finished_. He was laughing even now and in his shock and horror both he could only look to the opponent ahead of him in choked silence.

So blind, he thought to himself as tears ran down his face, unable to look away from the giant and the duelist ahead of them. So…

 _Blind_ …

“You…” he began, trembling with sorrow. “ ** _WHAT HAVE YOU DONE_**?” he cried over the air, the laughter cutting short. It was annoyance that led Kiryu to stop rather than realization however, and Crow continued to shout to him in his horrified rage. “CAN’T YOU SEE WHAT YOU’VE DONE?” he asked, eyes wide. “CAN’T YOU SEE WHAT YOU DID TO HIM?”

Kiryu’s words served to hurt him still more. “He’s powerful now, isn’t he?” he laughed, spinning his bike around to face his old ‘friend’ with a grin. “This strength of his, you can’t hope to defeat it after all!” Kiryu howled, his opponent bowing his head as he shook.

No… No, no, NO!

“YOU HAVEN’T BROUGHT HIM TO LIFE!” he screamed, voice growing hoarse. “YOU TORE HIM APART FROM THE INSIDE! YOU PULLED HIM BEYOND DEATH INTO SOMETHING WORSE!”

“IS THAT SO?” Kiryu snarled back in his blind rage, their bikes growing closer and closer to the now waiting and standing giant. “THEN WHY NOT LET HIM BE THE JUDGE?  _YUUSEI ATTACKS_!” he ordered, the behemoth raising a fist to do just that, much to his horror. “AND NOTHING CAN DEFEND YOU NOW!”

No, he thought to himself coldly.

That wasn’t true.

“You expect me to believe that this _THING_ … IS WHAT YOU SEE YUUSEI AS?” he 'asked', eyes wide as he moved to counter.

 ** _NO_**!

With one smooth movement the cards were raised, and in his rage he stood his ground. “I’LL SHOW YOU WHAT YUUSEI’S SOUL LOOKS LIKE!” Crow roared, the fist coming ever closer. “ _I’LL SHOW YOU THE FORM OF THE ONE WHO STAYED BY YOUR SIDE TO TRY AND KEEP YOU FROM THIS PATH! THE ONE WHO WAS FORCED TO WATCH YOU DO THIS TO YOURSELF, ALL WHILE HOPING YOU WOULD REALIZE WHAT WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU_!”

And while the cards took their effect…

He only then announced what they were. Three in total three to protect him. The first to bring the attack to his monster, only to shield it from destruction.

As for the others, the battle would soon come to an end, of that he was certain.

“Trap activate!” he called out, throwing his arm toward it as he spoke. Under the combined force of the direct attack and Ccapac’s own effect it shielded him, barely keeping him alive. “CHAOS LIFE! When I would lose lifepoints due to the effect of a monster, I gain lifepoints equal to that amount!” While he spoke the fist passed through him, as though nothing more than a figment of his imagination. His eyes closed and his body and D-Wheel did not falter in their pace, if anything became repaired. And as Ccapac pulled his fist back almost in confusion, Crow’s eyes snapped open, the teen moving his arm to gesture toward his other trap. “Additionally, during the battle step I can activate this!” he announced. “Urgent Tuning! Sending from my field one tuner monster,” Crow explained, Vayu vanishing from sight, “And one normal monster,” he went on as the Armor Master scattered.

And from the extra deck, it appeared.

His eyes were still wet with tears and as he took the card in his hands it hurt to speak. This wasn’t meant to be his, he told himself. It was never meant to be his.

Yet it was his voice that now called it into existence as bright and interstellar light gleamed behind him. “Clustering hopes tear seas and stars…  Becoming the path that light shines upon!” he announced, unwilling to simply copy the chant that his friend had used once before. “SYNCHRO SUMMON!” Crow roared, the sound joined by that of the great dragon itself as it soared into existence. “TAKE FLIGHT, STARDUST DRAGON!”

The light seemed to blind Kiryu for a moment, at least as they came toward the Giant’s legs. And as the bikes passed through them Kiryu lowered the arm he’d held to shield his eyes, snapping his gaze toward Crow in an instant. “So you as well then?” he snarled viciously  eyes filled with rage. “YOU AS WELL WOULD STOOP SO LOW, STEALING WHAT’S HIS?”

Tch!

No. “ _OPEN YOUR EYES_!” he thundered, the dragon soaring just barely above him. Behind him the Giant turned but slowly to face the battle field once again with its faceless visage and lumbering form, arms held slightly aloft in preparation to attack. And as Crow continued to snarl it seemed only now that Kiryu was able to look up toward it.

…And as he did so, his crazed anger seemed to fade.

“Look at what you’ve SUMMONED!” Crow continued to cry to his friend, Kiryu's eyes widening as he took in the sight of the enormous beast. “LOOK AT IT! How can you call this monster your friend?  _HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT THIS IS YUUSEI_?”

And finally, it seemed he realized what he'd done. “No…”

“You didn’t bring him back,” Crow repeated through his tears, voice quieting in a mix of strain and despair. “You just damned him to the same fate as all the other demons we’re fighting!” he cried, and in his misery it seemed that Kiryu finally saw just what stood before him.

Yet it was looking to the giant now that only made things worse. “No… What have I…” As he shook his head he looked to Crow, hands falling from the d-wheel’s bars. “What have… What point is there then?” he wept, nothing but the straight stretch of ‘road’ they drove upon keeping him from falling now. “ _WHAT MORE DO I HAVE THEN?_ ” That…

The giant’s shadow loomed behind him and in his mind he prayed to draw just one card to save them now. It was his turn- Kiryu’s sudden hesitance told him that much. It was his turn and yet now that it was, he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know how he could turn this around more than he had, backed into a corner as he was.

His hand slowly moved to hover above the deck but it shook, and above him the Stardust dragon seemed to sing. Please, he found himself praying, to anything that could listen, to anything that might hear him. Please, he screamed in his thoughts as a sharp cry pulled his attention forward, Crow finding himself forced to look back as he realized that Kiryu’s bike had finally fallen completely out of control, skidding off to the side of the track as he bypassed him completely.

And as Crow moved to find a point he could turn around to double back for, the giant loomed ever imposing ahead of him.

So with one hand moving toward his deck, he prayed

 _Just one card_..!

“GH-! AAGK-HSFFFF!” He almost released the clutch of the bike from the shock that ran through him in that instant, forcing himself to do anything but hold his hand as it quite suddenly seared in pain. And as he opened his eyes and looked to it he froze, flaming red meeting his vision.

It was literally so, in fact. Through the haze of the burning fire he could make out the symbol of a circled beast of sorts, a dragon, or a winged snake. And looking forward at the giant he had yet to dispel he found himself nodding with renewed resolve despite the searing pain that still shot through his hand, a single thought racing through his mind. One card, he told himself, moving for the deck.

Just one, he thought. And with this power guiding his hand and his thoughts it moved-

_As though his hand were not his own, but merely guided by the hands of many others, whose hopes and dreams were at his back now-_

It was a card he had never seen before but he did not care. Somehow he knew exactly what he was meant to do with it, and it was for that reason that what he played first was not what he drew, but rather a spell from his hand.

“Speed spell!” he announced in the face of the monster before him, only now finding the space to double back toward his fallen opponent. “Rendering tuning! Special summoning a tuner monster from my hand!” he continued. “And I pick this- ‘Savior Dragon’!” The dragon in question was small- rose in colour, and barely the size of his hand.

However he was not yet done.

“I then summon Jet the Blue Sky!” Crow called, the small bird shooting forward to join the others. “And with that, I’m tuning them together!” he cried, pointing a still flaming and potentially deteriorating hand forward. “GO! Gathering starlight brings forth a new miracle!” the teen shouted, the light above him growing with blinding intensity. “Become the path its light shines upon! SYNCHRO SUMMON!” he roared, and as light flooded the air a song-like cry echoed.

“ARRIVE IN LIGHT, SAVIOR STAR DRAGON!”

“ _KuuuRRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNn_!”

…Light.

Light embodied the beast above him and yet for all its brilliance, as the fires on his hand faded he was left with nothing but pain. Even so however he steadied himself, pointing it forward.

“ATTACK!" he ordered, hand trembling as he gave the command. " _SHOOTING BLASTER SONIC_..!”

A howling roar echoed through the air in immediate response to the attack order, the dragon shooting forward to tear through the giant completely. To send it falling back to the ground with no sound other than a resounding crash, before it seemed to melt into the very earth beneath it.

Savior Star Dragon negated the effects of one monster after all, and there had been only one monster whose effects it could negate. For only one moment in the turn it could activate that effect as its own. And with that, it was 'over'.

The D-Wheel came to a stop and he ducked as the destruction of the giant blasted back over the field, flames dying down whilst the almost dissonant sound of ‘you win!’ came from the screen of the bike. Yes, he had won, he thought almost bitterly in that moment.

At what cost, however? He jumped from the seat and ignored the sting his right hand still felt, running toward where Kiryu’s bike had fallen. The bike itself was not in as severe condition as one would think- It had fallen over, true, but otherwise could well have been turned over and started yet again if one so willed it.

However Kiryu lay some distance from it, back pushed against the rubble as he gave irregular, shuddering breaths. And from where he'd managed to roll over, his eyes slowly looked toward Crow with a shine devoid of the same darkened madness as before, the whites restored with pained realization.

And as he came toward him, it struck him just then…

He would not have much time to say goodbye to him either.

It wasn't fair, that. “Kiryu…” It wasn’t fair and yet that changed nothing. “At least in the end,” he choked out, a pained smile on his face, “I got you to see… Right?” he asked, falling to his knees at the man’s side. And as though to reassure himself, as though to tell himself it had been the only way he repeated- “… _Right_?”

His response was rasping, sorrow filled laughter, and as Crow wept he could not keep his body from trembling.

“I’m so sorry,” he cried, shaking his head. “For what happened to you- for what happened to Yuusei-“

The laughter grew louder, and it dripped with sarcastic despair. “You…” Kiryu looked to him through the cracked visor of his helm and shook his head, body growing cold. “Why should you apologize for any of this?” he rasped, shaking his head.

Why else, he wanted to ask. “Because I…”

Because if something had just gone differently that night, then perhaps this never would have happened.

“None of this was ever your fault,” Kiryu coughed, voice cracking under the weight of his tears. “You’re the one who tried to tell me what I couldn’t see,” he continued tearfully. “You opened my eyes up…”

But what did that matter now? He opened his mouth to speak and yet nothing came out, the boy left to do nothing more than shake his head. What did that matter  _now_ , when all it meant was that they were BOTH-

“…Maybe now he can get some peace,” Kiryu whispered, closing his eyes for a moment before looking up to the slowly clearing sky. “After all this time… I just wanted to finish that last duel with him. With everyone,” he half corrected, his eyes turning to Crow yet again as the teen wept. “And instead, I made him do all those things…”

“Kiryu,” he choked out, shaking his head only for the body he partially held to almost collapse beneath him.

“I…” He was dying… “I simply can’t be satisfied” Kiryu finally whispered. “After what I’ve done…”

“Kiryu-” Crow began, only for the body ins his arms to disperse into nothing but dust. “KIRYU!” He…

He was gone.

And far off in the distance where the giant had fallen, a spirit garbed in blue and black stared, bowing his head in silence. At last, he thought to himself.

Perhaps now, Kiryu could finally-

“ _ **GLK-**_ ” With a choking cry that none could hear he stiffened, clutching his chest as pain seared through his being. He tripped backwards across the ground, and from below it seemed the earth itself was opening to reach up for him. “ _ **GLA-GK-**_ ”

In the back of his mind the voices cackled-

‘ _hNHNHAHAHAHAHHAA…_   ** _DID YOU FORGET SOMETHING_**?’ they taunted, their victim reaching up and out as he was dragged back and into the earth by some unseen force, his voice caught in the back of his throat. His fingers scraped against the ground but clung to nothing, his hands grabbed at stones but did nothing, and as he fell… ‘ _You’re one of us now, ‘boy’..!_ ’

‘ _ **WELCOME TO HELL!**_ ’


	36. Chapter 36

When the giant’s glyph faded they had no true way of telling who the winner was. If not for the fact that he himself had already started his duel in fact, he likely would have darted off to check.

To the shock of anyone watching however, the tower would sink down into the earth- leaving only two remaining.

Jack merely wished it hadn’t come to this. That of all the things to have happened, it had never come to this. But instead…

…

They could have died together, really. He had the card- he could have done it.

Carly as it seemed, had predicted just as much, looking back to him with tears in her eyes as she took the damage for herself and spun out from control.

‘I can’t see,’ she’d whispered, and almost in surprise found her glasses on her face again. Her eyes had cleared back to white only to fill with tears, the lenses doing nothing for her as Jack held her close for her last moments.

‘I’m sorry...’ she wept softly, clinging to his jacket. ‘For everything I’ve done Jack, I'm so sorry…’

‘It’s okay,’ he told her, holding her as her body began to collapse from beneath his arms. ‘It’ll be alright… It’s okay,’ he assured her, his voice quieter than it had ever been before. She was so cold... Like ice almost, what little of her life remained fading from his grasp. Yet he forced himself to hold on, repeating his words with a whisper. 'It'll be okay.'

With what little strength she had, she smiled. ‘ _I love you, Jack_.’

She turned to ash from within his arms.

And once again he was left with nothing but a pair of glasses to remember her by.


	37. Chapter 37

Between the two towers that had remained there was one point in particular which could potentially have posed a threat against them, and one point in particular Jack would have to pass by.

Had anything but what happened as he did so occurred in fact, he would have done just so. Instead someone appeared to be waiting for him- dressed in robes of red and black, looking down on him as he approached. A Dark Signer, he realized the moment he spotted the figure.

And, well.

After what had just become of Carly, he wasn’t about to simply leave the ones who had led her to that fate alive, now was he?

And when he stated as much, ‘Rudger’ seemed amused.

“Perhaps you’ll have the chance to join your friend beneath the earth then,” he’d chuckled darkly.

Jack had merely responded that he would not be dying today.

He proved it soon enough. He followed the Dark Signer into the pits of Old Momentum until they were surrounded by the glow of energy, and though the cast on his arm meant he would have to play in a somewhat different manner than typical he would do so without complaint this time.

This pain, he decided, and this awkward difficulty posed by holding the duel disk upon his opposite arm, would be more than worth it.

It  _was_  more than worth it he told himself.

There was simply no argument, regardless of what Rudger spoke of as they dueled.

He had not expected such history between Yuusei and this building, to be honest. The accusations toward him however, and the questions of his bond to the now deceased friend were no less despised for it. How dare he imply the blame fall to Yuusei, for what  _he_  had done? For what his father had tried to  _prevent_?

It was no longer simply vengeance for Carly’s sake that held him here, apparently.

But also, as he summoned his Red Daemon’s Dragon and prepared his final strike, for the sake of his long dead friend.

Rudger was not finished even in loss however.

“Very well,” he laughed through the pain of his final moments, seeming to tear his own arm from its socket as Jack stared. “In that case,  _WE BOTH DIE_!”

“WHAT!?”

- _ **BROUM**_ -

The bridge collapsed beneath his feet and with nothing to grab he found himself looking to the light below. Rudger turned to ashes as his body plummeted downward, completely destroyed by the explosion he’d triggered before even the Earthbound could claim his soul. And as Jack fell he wondered-

Was this really the end?

Pain seared through his arm and with a jolt his senses returned.

Like _hell_ it was.

“AAAAAAH-  _HRAAHH!_ ”

As he fell he passed other bridges- none of which were likely meant to be grabbed at by hands attached to broken arms. Regardless of this Jack managed to barely snatch at the metal of one such thing even as the light began to sting his body, the already injured blond pulling himself up to the bridge with difficulty.

The bridge was surrounded by momentum, albeit weak levels compared to the concentrated mass below. If he’d fallen further, it wasn’t likely he would have been able to survive-

If he stayed here much longer, it would quite likely be the same. It was hard to breathe in here- he stifled rough and haggard coughing as he moved forward, searching for the end of the bridge. Down this far the very walls of the chambers had been blown in, leaving entire floors of the building to soak in the energies of the momentum. It was a surprise that the bridge itself had survived in fact, not that Jack paid this much mind.

He merely searched for a way up and out, squinting against the sting of the momentum and ignoring the burn as it blew against him.

He could hear screams around him, he thought as he moved. And as he moved his Signer mark burned and pulsed, as if to fight against some unseen force around him. He moved and thought he saw shadows amid the faint light around him, even as he found stairs upward. Streaks of colour within the glow, taking almost humanoid form.

Jack paid none of this any mind however, or at least that was what he would have claimed even to himself. He eventually found his way out from the depths and despite his eyes still burning from the trek managed to continue through to the surface with little trouble at all from that point on. He did not look back to the momentum pit, nor even back toward the path he had already taken. It was almost a pity really.

Perhaps if he had turned he would have caught sight of a figure in white, with eyes not unlike that of an old friend despite their age. Or perhaps at least, he would have heard the professor say to him-

‘ _Thank you._ ’


	38. Chapter 38

While Jack was busy pulling himself out of a bit of toxic energies, Mikage’s car lay half abandoned at the entrance to what had likely been an old carnival of sorts before Satellite became what it was, a chilling reminder of what had once been. It was of course far too old for the twins to even consider- or even for Aki to do so, in fact.

However as Mikage paused in her run after the ‘black rose witch’ to catch her breath, she could not help but recall a time when the area had been, perhaps, not much different from Neo Domino.

“Hah. Hahhhhh… I’m sorry,” she told the twins behind her, shaking her head. “She’s just too fast…”

The twins for their part were leaning back against poles, gasping for breath themselves. “Y-Yea... Aki-neesan really wants to fight whoever is here,” Ruka sighed, shaking her head as her brother nodded.

“M-Mnnn… Probably because of what happened to Divine…” Ah, that was right he fell right from the top of the building through to the bottom didn't he? “I didn’t want to tell her, but I like it better this way really.”

“You were with Divine!?” Mikage choked, the twins merely laughing rather awkwardly.

“Er- W-Well-“

“We were trying to meet with Aki-neesan,” Ruka explained. “But while we managed to do that, Divine made Rua do a lot of duel tests.”

“Mouuuuuuu!” he whined in response, “It’s cool that I can heal apparently, but did he really have to throw all those fireballs?”

“I don’t know,” came a chuckling voice, and in an instant the trio grew white. “ _Did I_?”

That was the last thing they saw before sparks charged toward them, the majority of which flashed before Ruka’s eyes as she drew back with a shout.

And as her brother tackled her out of the way their vision grew dark- and far ahead, as a breeze seemed to pass where Aki Izayoi stood, the woman found herself glancing back with a frown.

“…Tch.” She snorted after a few moments of staring at empty space, turning away. “I thought they would have caught up by now.” There was be no reason to delay, she told herself sternly, continuing back on her path. She would find this Dark Signer who had killed Divine, and drag them along with all of their allies to the grave. No matter what the cost, she told herself with chilled determination.

No matter what the consequence.


	39. Chapter 39

- _tpf_ -

- _tpf_ -

“Mn…”

- _tpf_ -

“What…”

When Rua woke up, he was more than confused to find water dripping on his face.

Further clearing his head however, he realized that the water dripping on his face was the least of his worries. “AaaaHH-!”

Water was dripping everywhere else too.

And the others were still asleep.

“Rua!” he shouted, rolling both of the others over in panic. “Mikage-san! Wake up!” he pleaded, shaking them. “Wake up!”

“Mn…”

“Atlas-sama?” AH-

Ruka thankfully woke up far quicker than Mikage had. “Mikage-neesan! Wake up!”

“AH-!” The woman’s eyes shot open and in an instant she stood, feet splashing in what was already at least two inches of water in the large pit they seemed to be in. There was a grate far above them. A solid metal grate that seemed to be forced shut, with no other sign of an escape.

Yet Divine had not even bothered to use any means to weld or lock it so- for when it came to the matters of frail women and children, what hope could they have of lifting the grate?

Mikage was not so frail as Divine had thought.

It was with grim determination that she forced herself up againts the wall as the waters rose, the twins keeping to the sides for support as they floated. With the strength of one who had no other reason than to protect someone dear, she pushed upward, ignoring shouts from the others when she slipped to fall back to the water that was already filling it so much, and merely lifting further.

And with one arm to hold it open and nothing else to hold herself there she reached for the children.

“Ruka!” she called first, helping her out of the chamber as she shivered from the cold. “Now Rua!” the woman continued, the boy aided by both his sister and the secretary before he turned.

“Mikage-san, you too!”

“I’m com-“

The doors opened. And as the twins stood in shock, Mikage would do something that when looked upon much later, would almost completely slip her mind.

With one hand pushing on the grate she pulled herself from the chamber and charged without hesitation toward the door as the one who had trapped them there walked in. And as she did so, she shouted-

“ _RUN_!”

The twins did not hesitate to do so.

As to what happened to Mikage as they ran, they only hoped that it was not as bad as they had seen thus far.


	40. Chapter 40

It became clear to them as they ran that Rua was not the greater of two targets.

“RUKA!”

“H-A _AH-_!”

Fire seared the ground as he pulled his sister from harms way yet again, and in their panic they ducked into the entrance of one of the larger buildings on the carnival grounds. A lock slid into place with as much haste as possible before they fled up the stairs, but as crashing began beneath them it was clear that it would not hold long.

“Why is he trying so hard to kill us!?” Rua protested as they came to the top room within the building, slamming and locking the doors behind them as they ran. “What’s with this guy!?”

“I don’t know!” Ruka responded. “I didn’t think Divine would go this far either!” They knew he was  _crazy_ , sure- but they didn’t think he was _THIS_ crazy!

“Mmn…” Either way, with this they would have to find some way to fight back instead of just running right?

Sounds of battle came dimly from outside, and as they moved past the dusty equipment that lay around the room to peer through the window they spotted nothing but flames, tall and violet in hue, filling the air with darkness.

“An Earthbound God,” Ruka murmured fearfully, her brother swallowing his own unease and looking to the things in the room. “Eh- Rua?”

The boy’s face seemed fraught with worry and terror alike despite his best efforts, and he turned. “Divine… He kept trying to attack you instead of me,” he began, his sister smiling uneasily.

“Ah- Well, I suppose since you can heal,” she offered with a laugh, only to stop as her brother shook his head.

“But that’s supposed to make him target me!” he protested, abruptly cutting himself off as an expression of slight revelation came over him. “Ah-” Hang on now-

“Mn?”

His fear faded, and with a somewhat hesitant nod to himself he reached back to his ponytail to take the elastic out from his hair.

His sister stared. “R-Rua?”

“I have an idea!” he told her, taking his jacket and bracers off next. “Trust me, okay?”

The details of this idea were not entirely clear to be honest- Rua’s statements were choppy at best, and entirely impossible to understand at the worst as the duo swapped clothing and elastics. When he moved toward the device at the side however, opening the panel at the side to pull at some of the wires as he pulled his disk off, there was no time to explain the next part of his 'plan'-

The door crashed open and in panic he dropped the disk, hurriedly tapping something on the dusted machine and moving to stand beside and somewhat behind his sister. Divine would come in to see a somewhat huddled ‘Ruka’ and a typically defiant ‘Rua’. He would see one silently hold an arm out in defense against the other, and he would laugh in response, holding up a card and sending it forward. And as fires filled the air the children protested over the blaze, ‘ _WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?_ ’

“Because to put it quite bluntly you are  _threats_ ,” he said clearly, the fireball held above his hand and swiftly launched forward. “And I would much rather cut such a thing short before my hold on _dear_ Aki is shattered by  _children!_ ”

“H-GAAAAAHHHH-!”

- _CRSKH!_ -

The glass shattered and ‘Ruka’ was launched backward, body sailing through the air as the shards embedded in ‘her’ back. As blood dripped and as the one inside the building screamed, and as they landed those within were not the only ones to act as witness to the event.

“RUKA!” a somewhat familiar voice screeched, Rua landing to the ground with a sick thud as he choked on his blood. And then quite suddenly another voice came over the air on the field, broadcasting loud and clear thanks to the power source that was his duel disk. A voice which would soon damn itself, really- And joining it on the speakers the voice of the one he’d successfully protected, attempting to, for the sake of the moment, at least somewhat emulate his own.

For some reason as he blacked out, body nonetheless working away to heal what it could, he found himself focusing on the first voice however. To think, he thought to himself with a mental laugh.

The ‘scary witch lady’ from the Fortune cup could care for his sister…


	41. Chapter 41

When she had dueled Misty before, she had felt a fair number of things; most of them focused on anger at the woman’s accusations, her memory telling her quite clearly that they were false. Her brother’s death was tragic she supposed, but the fact remained she had nothing to do with it.

Nor did Divine, she told herself. There was no hesitation in her thoughts to say that there was no ‘cover up’, Divine would not have even needed to do such a thing. Not that he would- he told her everything, at least when it concerned the events around her.

That was what she truly believed.

Divine was a brilliant man, and he knew what he was doing. He tested Rua to his limits, and that was expected. He did not test Ruka in the same way, also as expected. He had even told her to keep her  _away_  from duels, stating that her powers were not tied to them in the same way, that her body would be unable to handle the strain of it. In some ways it would be seen as weak-

However as Divine told her, that merely made her stronger in so many other ways.

These twins, she thought to herself, were like her. They had come to Divine _alone_ with hopes to meet her, because that was all they had ever been apparently. Their parents were never home, nor even within the same country. They lived secluded in their house, away from others outside perhaps school school. Ruka’s powers made even that difficult, apparently- no one wanted to talk to the one who spoke with the dead after all.

They were like her.

So then how? _How could they have been so happy until then_?!

As Aki made her way through the amusement park these thoughts stewed in the back of her mind, eyes narrowed with rage. She had given no effort to reign her powers in against Rua, and that in turn had awakened his own. And before that she had witnessed the collapse of his sister as she succumbed to the fatigue dueling gave through her spiritually inclined abilities, highlighting the weakness she had assumed at that point. Perhaps they simply didn’t realize what their parents saw, Aki thought to herself. Perhaps they were better at convincing themselves. After all, she'd been like that once, hadn't she?

Divine would show them the way then, she decided.

Or at least he would have.

She did not know which Dark Signer had resulted in his death, which Dark Signer held the mark of the humming bird, but the fact was whoever did was irrelevant.

Four gylphs had appeared on the sky and the only one left was the lizard. Divine's murderer was gone.

So she would deal with this swiftly and without mercy. Such was what she decided as she came to the hall of mirrors and began. Such was what she did as the cards came to the field.

‘Sad Stories’ filled the air, and visions of Misty’s life came into being, saturating the duel with the woman’s emotions and desires and it made her feel ill, and it made her feel _irritated_.

A  _stall_  deck. She was against a  _stall_  deck, what a wonderful thing to fight  ** _WHEN SHE HAD A TIME LIMIT_**!

The more they dueled the angrier she got until finally her sealer clip fell to the ground and she  _roared._

“HOW MANY TIMES TO I HAVE TO TELL YOU,” she snarled viciously, ”THAT I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS!” A casual meeting in the building meant nothing. She’d spoken to him  _once_  and nevermore thereafter. He’d simply vanished after that. Left. He’d obviously gotten cold feet and run, having no stomach for their training regimen.

Misty did not believe so, and she told her as much. And the air filled with snarling accusations and the roars of dragons, until finally-

- ** _CRSCHK!_** -

- _cthmp!_ -

From the building beside the now ruined hall of mirrors a body flew through the air, a body she recognized all to well. “RUKA!” Ruka, or so it seemed, merely lay there. “ _RUKA_!!”

And from the speakers on the duel disk, there came other voices as well. Voices that had her frown in confusion initially- ‘Rua’ did not sound much like Rua to be honest, as though someone was trying too hard to deepen their voice to match, but-

 _Divine_?

He was  _alive?_

‘ _Why did you do that!?_ ’ ‘Rua’ seemed to weep, Aki looking from her Duel Disk to the window where ‘Rua’ could be seen standing. ‘ _You killed her!_ ’ ‘he’ seemed to cry, any hesitation mistaken for choked sobs.

‘ _Well of course- she’s not you,_ ’ Divine responded coolly, the eavesdroppers growing white with rage and shock alike. ‘ _I need to be more creative to eliminate the threat **you**  pose._’

The duel seemed to come to a standstill with that. Even the Earthbound God stopped looking to its target, turning instead to look at the window where the sound’s source lay.

And ‘Rua’ continued. ‘ _Then you’re also the reason Misty wants Aki-n-_ ’ Aki  _what_? ‘ _Dead?_ ’

Divine’s next words were such that even Aki herself wanted to turn the powers of a god upon him. ‘ _I won’t deny that there are casualties. Aki is like a precious, rare gem, with powers like no other I’ve ever seen. Truly a beautiful **monster**! I will admit though… I never expected someone with relations to that boy to appear here. He was weaker than even you and your sister combined, boy. If he couldn’t survive even the initial phase of experimentation then, well!_ ’ He chuckled, and for a moment Aki and Misty seemed to trade livid glances before turning back upward.

‘ ** _He wasn’t even worth the effort of training._** ’

After all those speeches about a place for psychics.

After all those assurances that her powers were not seen as ‘monstrous’ while in that building, after all that he’d said!

Suddenly Ccarayhua  _moved,_ and not to attack her. Stooping down to the ground on all fours, lifting its head back up to peer through the window of the building before them.

It was Ruka’s voice, not Rua’s to her surprise, which came through the device next. ‘ _You shouldn’t have said that,_ ’ she warned, and with a shout of sheer terror Divine wound himself snatched up by the tongue of the lizard god, Ccarayhua rearing back up to reel him in and swallow him whole.

“It would seem we were both taken advantage of,” Misty murmured, looking back from the lizard to her opponent. “How unexpected.”

Yes.

How… Unexpect-

HMPH! Her eyes narrowed back into focus, and Aki growled under her breath. “This duel isn’t over,” she warned, the air seeming to crackle as her power began to build. “ _Make your move_.”

“I could simply surrender,” Misty responded, seeming almost apathetic toward the situation now. “I have no reason to fight now.”

“MAKE. YOUR.  _MOVE_ ,” she ground out, dust flying back from behind her with each word.

Misty looked to the woman with almost sad eyes, but nonetheless nodded. Someone with such rage could surely only prove more dangerous to the world if left alive after all.

And in that case. “Very well. Ccarayhua!” she called, the lizard moving one hand forward. “ATTACK DIRECTLY!”

It would not take long for the battle to end. With a single trap Misty’s turn was forced into an end, and with her turn came the rise of the Black Rose Dragon. _‘You know what will happen if you win,_ ’ Misty warned.

And Aki merely pointed the dragon forward and continued her move. “Yes,” she responded to her opponent. “I honestly don’t care though.”

Now if only the last move hadn’t been just enough to get them to sunset she thought with a pang of rage, storming past Misty without pause while the geoglyph and the woman both began to fade.

She could at least seal the tower she supposed bitterly. It likely wouldn’t do a thing, but she could do at least that.


	42. Chapter 42

Why did Godwin do it, he wanted to ask. This man who had given him the chance at a new life, however ineffective it had been in allowing him to move on from an old friend’s death. This man who had taken him in, and even made the preparations to keep in place what gave him a home should he pass on himself.

Why did Godwin do it? Betray them all in an instant. Steal the power of the dragon to combine it with that of the condor. In the back of his mind he wondered if Godwin had ever even intended for the towers to be sealed at all- giving them locations and nothing more, watching from afar as they struggled with each battle.

 _Why did he do it_?

He and Crow both would face him now, each with 4000 against Godwin's own 8000. And as they whittled him down the sun and the moon would both rise in their divine cycle of movement, replacing each other in an eternal dance as their attacks did nothing to stop it.

As the marks of the dragon moved to join the arm Godwin had attached to his own body, and as the symbol appeared over the man’s bare chest. As Godwin laughed, announcing that he was a ‘god’ and bringing bitter memories of times only recently passed to their minds.

Time seemed to move so quickly as they dueled, the hours of the night passing before them. For all their work however, it was seemingly for naught- for above them the Condor rose, and from the distance the King of the Netherworld approached. And to follow it small black beasts of sludge swarmed the air, taken down only by liberal use of monsters summoned to reality by Aki, and by dragons whose power was represented by the twins below.

It seemed that both of them, both he and Crow, had been betrayed somehow. Jack by the one who had given him a choice and home. Crow by the one whose dream had inspired his own, only to be shattered in his eyes.

So Crow made moves to prove him wrong. He moved, even as the Condor above blasted his lifepoints to ‘1’, to fly on wings of steel powered by the engines of the bike- shooting a clawed hook from the bottom of the vehicle to the moon itself and using it to land safely at the other end of the track.

…And still driving, even as the moon was destroyed. Even though his body was now more broken than Jack’s own, trembling in the seat of the D-Wheel. With an activated card his effect damage was reverted to health gain.

Even if his body did not recover so easily as his lifepoints.

“Our bonds aren’t broken.” There was no questioning it, after all. There was no ‘yet’, no nothing.

Their bonds were bonds that would never break, not even after so much from the past had come to catch up with them. 

This was the sort of thing Carly would have wanted to see, he found himself thinking. His eyes looked over the glasses in his pocket for a moment, and with steadied resolve even doubling vision and burned skin could not keep him from stopping. Nothing would hold him back.

Nothing. He had thought he could forget about everything, and move ahead with nothing in his past.

She’d reminded him otherwise.

No one could change the past. The past was what it was, and so instead of forgetting it the point was to learn- to move forward, to use what had happened to build the future they sought..!

He made his move.

He launched his attack, and even as his plans were seemingly shattered he left his mark. And in that way, it ended for him almost completely.

“HRAAA-GK-!” His body rolled as it hit the ground beneath the force of the Condor's attack, and the bike followed. An echoing, nauseating crack sounded through the air, and as Jack struggled to sit up he attempted to push the bike from his being with his legs only to be met with searing pain. “GHHHNK-“

Sound came from the screen- Crow was shouting to him, asking if he was alright. You couldn’t stop driving in a duel like this. This was all Crow could do as he disappeared ahead after all.

And as he looked to the screen, he found himself giving a pained grin. “…It looks like I can’t keep driving,” he found himself admitting with a harsh cough. “Make sure… That you use our bonds well!” Gh…

Hehehe… Hahahaaaa.

As he closed his eyes to be met with darkness, he wondered…

Would he see everyone again, in a few moments?


	43. Chapter 43

He asked his question with chilling honesty after sustaining Godwin’s next great attack. He did not have a card to reverse the damage this time around, and as his bike shuddered he barely kept to the track. He looked over his options, and over the cards he had, thinking over the shouts from his friends, and the screeches of the spirits above.

He took his turn, and through the traps he and Jack had left behind challenged all that Godwin shouted to them. He continued to deny what their opponent had said, and he continued to protest that this was _NOT THE END_!

He would prove it, he told him.

With this card that bore the memories of the dead.

Stardust Dragon soared above him with that intent in mind, and Stardust’s power rose by way of the trap he’d set long before. And by the card Jack had left for him the sun and the moon were both destroyed, and their cycle came to an end.

Godwin yet insisted that there would be nothing for them but despair and darkness. That there was no hope for the world unless it was ‘reset’.

So he asked, with brutal clarity-

‘ _Do you really want to be a God?_ ’

Godwin’s attacks flew toward him, but with the aid of yet another card Jack had left behind he blew it off. And while Godwin’s own traps were revealed those two were shaken off, and so he asked again-

“Do you really want to be a ‘God’? To be forced to cut the ties with those you knew? To cut the ties of the things you believed in? ISN’T THAT WHY YOU CAME THIS FAR IN THE FIRST PLACE!? DIDN’T YOU DO ALL OF THIS FOR YOUR BROTHER? DIDN’T YOU DO ALL OF THIS SO YOU COULD BE WITH HIM?” And as Godwin stared, Crow clenched his fists and continued onward. “You aren’t doing this for power. You aren’t even doing this for yourself! YOU JUST COULDN’T ACCEPT WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM! YOU DON’T WANT TO SURPASS HIM,” Crow argued fiercely.

He merely wanted what Kiryu had, when bringing Yuusei back.

“ **You want to join him!** ”

In that moment, one could say a miracle happened. Upon Godwin’s chest the dragon began to glow brilliantly before scattering into dust on the wind. From the arms of the others came the marks that they had so briefly lost, from the tail to the leg, from the leg to the claw and to the wings that seared into Jack’s arm with such intensity that he was briefly awakened from his pain and fatigue to look upon it in confusion.

And from Crow’s arm as well there was a brilliant light, one that had him pause in seeming fear for a brief moment. A light that reminded him of the duel with Kiryu, the duel that had burned his hand to a nearly useless state that had him struggling to properly hold the cards from that point on.

This light was different. It was warm and almost familiar even, filling him with courage and strength both. And as the light cleared he stared in awestruck shock, the sight of the mark that had come from Godwin’s forcefully assimilated arm meeting his gaze through his torn-up jacket sleeve.

“This-” A birthmark- a 'signer mark'. “This is-!”

The Dragon had chosen ‘bonds’ to represent his power. He had chosen someone else to be his ‘head’. And as Godwin protested this, Crow steadied his resolve with an unwavering faith in what was yet to come.

In that moment, as he reached for his deck, the marks moved once again. Yet he did not pay this any mind, merely telling himself what he needed to do. This was it.

The final move.

Jack relied on this, as did all the others he had met, and all the others he had not. All those who lived and were no longer living, all that existed at any given time.

This was it.

The mark of the dragon blazed upon his back, and he drew his card. “It’s my turn!”

The cards were brought to the field. The darkness was cut by light. And once again the Savior Star Dragon came to the field.

This would have been Yuusei’s monster once, he was sure. And while he may or may not have been able to fight by his side once-upon-a-time that happened, the fact remained it would have been Yuusei making this final attack.

That was what he liked to think, at least. That was what he told himself as the bike and dragon both soared forward, and as fires surrounded them both. As the Crimson Dragon made solid entered the air to tear through the Condor before them, and with it the last of Godwin’s lifepoints. It tore through Godwin himself and in its path met the King of the Netherworld with nothing but a fierce and unstoppable force of light.

He kept his eyes open as long as he could.

…In the end however he had to blink, and upon opening his eyes again was met with a sight not at all like the one he had left behind.

He stood in what seemed to be ‘space’, almost. An endless expanse of stardust and warm blue light, with nothing around him.

Nothing but, as he realized with widening eyes, the fallen Dark Signers.

‘ _They’ll awaken_ ’, he was told, his attention drawn to two others ahead of him. Rudger and his brother looked to him with calm smiles from the light-filled path they were prepared to embark on, and they continued.  _‘They are the dead who are deceased by the influence of Gods. So they will return- if they will it._ ’

“Then both of you,” he realized as they said this, swallowing. “Both of you don’t…”

Their time was over wasn’t it? It was obvious. They were tired- and besides that, they chose this path. The others?

‘ _These ones did not have such a choice. Picked for Sacrifice, or questioned while unaware of the full consequences- they will receive a second chance. We will not._ ’

“…Godwin-”

‘ _Do accept our apology_ ,’ they requested of him, walking through the light.

“GODWIN!”

The King of the Netherworld was destroyed completely as the sun began to rise. And the Crimson Dragon rose high above the others with it, snatching Jack as well in its grip. A rain of gold seemed to fall upon them, the temple collapsing, the condor’s geoglyph fading. The battle was over…

As they were brought to the ground, revealed as the dragon’s presence faded from the world, they could be assured of that.

…

…And in the darkness deep below, in a land far distant from their own, another voice joined the others that rumbled in a young spirit’s mind, sneering at the failure that he had so experienced. The darkness however, soon calmed this voice, turning it instead to taunt the spirit with all the others-

For as Ccapac Apu said to them-

 _‘This is merely the start of the next phase in our plan._ ’ And all that stood between them and success now, after all…

Was the faltering will of a no-longer human spirit.


	44. Chapter 44

The path to recovery was always a difficult one to be honest, though Crow had not expected to be awake when he was brought into the hospital room. Jack had passed out long before they even reached the ground after all- being even semi-conscious, for at least a short time, had been the least of what he expected.

In the end it seemed that somehow damage to him was minimal in comparison to the others. True, there was the matter of his right hand- though it functioned fine enough by this point, it was covered now in what seemed almost to be blotches of burned skin, darkened streaks leaving faint reminders of the fires that had engulfed it in his duel with Kiryu.

The rest of him was somewhat bruised, somewhat battered… Road rash without the road rash he’d even say.

This was nothing compared to the others, however.

Those who had been Dark Signers at one time were hospitalized wherever they were found. He had yet to find Kiryu. He had yet to even find a sign of Kiryu, even. And it wasn’t as though he had a clue who the other Dark Signers were.

He almost wondered if perhaps Kiryu had decided to join the one who  _couldn’t_  return, to be honest. Though at the least, if that happened, they were both likely to be happier in the end.

Jack almost certainly wouldn't be be too pleased when he woke up though, he thought to himself with a snort. In the time that he’d been discharged he’d been spending varying amounts of time going back and forth between his hide-out and Martha’s home, taking full advantage of Mikage’s offer to have him flown back to satellite, and if needed, later to Neo Domino when Jack was awake again. He figured it wouldn’t be long- with Jack it never was.

Didn’t want to be there for the initial shock he had when he found out his legs were broken though- it’d be at least two months before he was back on his feet and d-wheel again, that was for sure. Until then, it’d be a different set of wheels.

The kids were safer now, with Martha.

It was a little more hectic there now, of course. He did everything he could to ease that burden at the least. And in return he would know that they were safe, something Martha would know of him as well. While this happened, construction would begin on the Daedalus bridge; the dream made real, if at least from the other side of the water for the moment.

Crow sat on the end of the 'old Daedalus bridge' and pondered all that had happened as of late, looking to the ‘head’ mark that had now permanently seared itself into his skin. With all that had happened as of late, with what had changed so drastically in a matter of hours, he didn’t know what would happen now.

If it was like before, it’d be scavenging as usual. At the moment, it was still ‘scavenging as usual’, if at the very least to get some food for Martha.

That wouldn’t last though.

Soon enough Satellite would be ‘reclaimed’ as part of the city, and become ‘like’ the city as well. People would stop having to scavenge, because it would be impossible to do it in the same way as before, wouldn’t it? Suddenly, Satellite would be something other than a trash-yard.

You couldn’t hide in an open lot. Not easily at least.

Could definitely land an aircraft though he thought somewhat idly as a helicopter passed overhead. He had a feeling he knew what it was doing here too. “Heh.”

He stood, stretching and making his way to the Blackbird to head off after the copter.

“About time he woke up!”

* * *

Jack was not the first to wake up, albeit not by much. Another had awoken a short time before him, and it was their own acceptance of what had occurred and his that more or less synchronized their timing for later actions. Misty however had little to get over, at least in her opinion. She woke up, realized she was alive…

And laughed almost bitterly before deciding to check in on someone who would no doubt be in a similar position.

Jack, howewver?

Was not quite the same. There was lots of shouting lots of protesting and by the end of it Mikage wasn’t entirely sure how she hadn’t gone deaf, but!

“ATLAS-SAMA!” she cried after him, rather torn between elation at the man’s current mood and worry for what would happen as a result. Bad enough she had yet to explain that his vision was likely more than a bit 'under par' now, but this? “PLEASE, IT’S NOT A D-WHEEL!”

“Hm!" He merely snorted, continuing off. "You were going too slow!” came a response from ahead, and Mikage found herself sighing as the wheelchair vanished around the corner.

“Hahhhhh…” Really, his impatience was ridiculous!

Or at least, it was to her. Jack had one particular goal in mind however, and that goal would lead him to a reception counter to demand the room of someone else in the hospital. And soon enough he would get his answer to end up there in silence.

For while he and a few others had awoken, one had yet to do more than simply ‘live’.

It 'annoyed' him. Upset him. One could say it even _angered_ him, if only to avoid what could be seen as weaker emotions- perhaps that was why he made moves to simply prepare for when she woke up however, sending Mikage off on some errand only he knew about and waiting at Carly’s bedside from the wheelchair he was stuck in for the next two months.

And that was more or less how it went for the next week of those two months. He’d be dragged off back to his room to ‘rest’, he’d eventually do so, then get up, tear off in the chair to Carly’s room, and wait. And wait.

And-

One day, there was someone other than himself intending to visit it seemed, and as he looked up from where he sat, Jack frowned. “Hn?” He didn’t know who this was,, to be honest.

Apparently that wasn't the case for her. “Jack Atlas,” the woman greeted, calmly bowing her head as she came into the room. “I suppose I should have expected to see you here- Carly spoke quite fondly of you.” Wh-

He choked. “You knew Carly!?”

“For a time,” she answered, the blond before her stiffening.

“AHH- Then you were-“

“A dark signer, yes. But that’s the past,” the woman continued. “And right now, I simply wished to visit with someone I grew close to during that time,” she went on, Jack eyeing her with clear suspicion. “My name is Misty,” the woman told him. “Misty Lola.” Misty huh?

He nodded. “Mn. I suppose-“

“Nn-” As a sound came from the side both turned, eyes widening. “Mnn-”

“AAH- Carly!” Jack shouted, unable to keep a grin from growing on his face. “Carly!”

Carly for her part reacted as any would while trying to wake up, holding her head and slowly sitting up. It took a moment for her to actually realize there had been any shouts- and as she turned, she jumped. “Ah-! Someone’s in my room!?”

Er.

“Carly,” Misty began patiently. “This is a hospital.”

"A hospital?!"

“Here, Carly- your last glasses were broken, so I had someone get you new ones!” Jack continued almost smugly, fishing them out of his scrubs pockets and handing them over.

Carly for her part merely blinked, looking about the room at what were mostly ‘blurs’ to her for the moment and eventually taking the glasses from Jack’s hands. “Wow…” she breathed, eyes widening. “Progressive lenses! I could never afford a good replacement, but these are perfect! How did you kno-” She froze, and in an instant Misty did so as well. “AAH- J-JAC-“

“It’s been some time since we dueled,” Jack explained with crossed arms, nodding almost to himself. “If you need a bit more to wake up, then I understand! I-“

“ _Jack_ ,” Misty started, the duelist in question fumbling somewhat as the wheelchair was pulled back.

“WH- O- OI OI! What do you think you’re doing!” he shouted as the chair was pulled and then turned out from the hospital room. “MISTY!”

“E-Ehhh?”

As Carly stared, Misty turned back to smile rather sweetly. “I just remembered something, that’s all- Don’t worry, I’ll be back to explain what happened soon.”

The door closed, and Carly was left to stare in bewildered silence. “What?”

* * *

“Misty!” Jack snarled, both he and the former Dark Signer now far enough down the hall that Carly wouldn’t hear what they said. “What are you doing!? I was talking to-“

“She doesn’t remember you.”

Wh-

What? His rage built further, and he growled. “Won’t remember?” he repeated lowly. “How dare you! What gives you any right to say that!”

“It’s in her eyes- her body language,” Misty cut back. “She doesn’t remember you, Atlas-san!” That…

“And where’s your proof!?” Jack snarled, Misty opening her mouth to reply only for another voice to cut in.

“ _Son of a bitch_ , you just have all the ladies at your beck and call don’t you?”

Quite suddenly Jack and Misty were both pulled from the conversation by the humored tones of another, if not more unaware part of the recent events.

Given the brief pause, Crow decided it wouldn’t hurt to throw in a few more comments for good measure. “Ah, well! Better than the last one- Not to say she wasn’t good looking,” he laughed, “But I like my women sane thanks~”

“You-” Ohp. The wheelchair began to turn, and as Misty stared with a relatively unimpressed frown, Crow prepared to run. Three. Two. “We just met today you moron! AND WE ARE NOT INVOLVED!” One-

GO. “HaHAHAHAHAA!” Taking off at a run was a must once Jack started going with the wheelchair to say the least- though his arm was still in a cast he did not seem at all opposed to using both to speed up the chair’s run, and in seconds he and Crow were racing down the halls far from Carly’s room. “What’s the matter?” Crow laughed as his friend chased him. “The King doesn’t have a Queen?”

“THE KING DOESN’T FIND IT ANY OF YOUR BUSINESS, THAT’S WHAT!”

His grin widened. “Don’t tell me there IS one and you don’t want me to meet her!”

“ _CROOOOOOOOOWWW_!!”

“LEAST YOU GOT GOOD TASTE!” he laughed, and as he skipped around the corner his path had Jack hurriedly pushing the wheels in reverse to force himself to stop.

“YOU!!!” Jack watched as the redhead skipped down the stairs, snarling in annoyance. “THAT’S A DIRTY TRICK CROW! GET BACK UP HERE SO I CAN CHASE YOU PROPERLY!”

“AAAAAAhahaAHAHAHAHAHA!”

“CROW!!”

“ _Wheeeeh?_ ” “ _Is that the King?_ ” Eh?

Jack found himself looking off to the side as a number of children who had been passing stared. They were all patients from what he could tell; hospital gowns, a few even pulling IV drips along with them.

And they looked absolutely awestruck once they caught sight of his face.

_“WuaaaaHH!”_

_“It’s Jack Atlas!”_

“Ah-“

This would happen, wouldn’t it.

* * *

“I’m sorry that you had to find out this way,” she was told, Misty placing a comforting hand over hers. Carly merely trembled in silence, and the woman beside her sighed. “Truth be told, I didn’t expect you to forget.”

“H… How-” Carly choked on her words, unable to feel anything but cold. “How can I forget that much? How could I forget something this important!?”

Misty looked to her with sympathy, shaking her head. “I can’t explain it,” she admitted. “Most likely you repressed the events of your death, and this happened,” the woman continued, Carly cringing at the word ‘death’ as it was used so casually. “But you know, even if you’ve forgotten, that doesn’t mean the others have.” Eh?

She almost frowned at that. Of course they wouldn’t forget, it was obvious wasn’t it? If Misty was saying this-

“Jack hasn’t forgotten.”

…Oh.

As realization struck her, Carly bowed her head, biting her lip. “I- Jack…” When she said his name, it felt different now than from when she could remember. Her heart hurt- her head hurt. 

There was silence in the room after that, Misty leaving her friend, however forgotten their bond, to her comfortable quiet. The quiet however lasted only so long, and as shrill laughs accompanied by a familiar if not strangely cheery shout came from the hall the duo frowned.

“What on _earth_ ,” Misty muttered, heading to the door as Carly leaned over from the bed.

The door as opened and she looked down the end of the hall, only to hurriedly pull back as a set of blurs passed.

“ _WHEEEEEEE!!_ ”

“AHAHAH! No matter what there’s only one king! And that’s ‘JACK ATLAS’!”

“ _WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE_!!!” “ _FASTER OR WE WON’T CATCH HIM!_ ”

…What??

As Carly stumbled from her bed to look out the door herself she stared, watching as both Jack and a small number of kids ‘piloting’ a wheelchair vanished around the corner. “Eh… W- What’s going-“

“ _WE WON~_ ”

“AAAAAAAAAAH-“

W…

What??

Down the hall a similar thing would be happening, though in a less than confusing vein so much as wary.

“Who’s next!” Jack was asking the kids with a grin, ignoring the throbbing pain his broken arm was giving in protest. The kids in question- who had indeed won fairly given the skirting and screeching his own chair gave when steered by a broken limb- merely laughed from the wheelchair they’d pilfered from a separate ward, eagerly raising their hands.

_“Me!! Me!” “No pick me I’m next!” “I wanna race too!”_

Hahahaha… 

Reminded him of when he was a kid in a weird way to be honest. 

“Oi oi oiiiIII!!!”

THIS, however, didn’t. And as Jack turned the wheelchair, the other kids stared, Crow coming down the hall from wherever he’d disappeared to in the last chase.

“Jack! You can’t just race these things in a hospital!”

“Ah- And why not?” he protested. "This is something you'd be doing yourself anyway, admit it!"

“Hah! Maybe a few years ago," Crow snorted. "What happens if they don’t stop as fast as you did at the stairs!?”

“We won’t go near the stairs!”

“You’re gonna crash into someone!”

“We could have crashed too!”

“JACK!”

The blond grinned. “Hn! You can’t make us stop!” he said in his defense, crossing his arms triumphantly. “We’re racing!”

“There’s a difference between racing a bunch of wheelchairs and chasing me though!” he snarled, and in an instant he was chasing after Jack himself.

Jack for his part merely grinned wider, hurriedly shooting off toward where the room he’d been staying in was. “HAHAHA!! Even if you manage to catch me, you won’t be able to do anything Crow!”

“AAAAAAARGH!” Crow didn’t think so. “We’ll see how ready you are to say that in a few seconds!”

“I mean it!” he laughed. “I have ‘patient privileges!”

“Pati- WHAT?” As Jack’s chair screeched to a stop Crow stumbled, caught off guard by the sudden halt.

Before he could ask however, the door Jack had stopped in front of opened-

And stepping out from it, a rather angry Mikage. “Just what are you doing!?” she questioned, Crow momentarily at a loss for words. “Atlas-sama is injured- Why am I hearing shouts?!”

“Wheelchair races.” Jack answered casually, shrugging from his seat.

As he said this however, he grinned almost maliciously- and Crow had a feeling he knew why.

“OHHHHHH  _you_ -“ His words were cut short by Mikage's own, the woman almost idly handing something to Jack as she turned toward the young redhead.

“You convinced Atlas-sama… To race in a hospital…”

ERK- “Woah, hang on here," he protested as he backed away, "I didn’t do any-“

“WHILE HE’S INJURED!?!”

“Sonufa-“

Yet again Crow was finding himself chased down the hall, and as Mikage tore off after him with adamant accusations Jack grinned. HAH!

That was for the stairs, he thought with a grin as he turned the chair down the opposite direction.

That would keep Crow plenty busy he decided. Now, where did those kids-

“Hello again Jack.”

“Mn?” He turned, a door he’d been about to pass opening as Misty and Carly stepped out. Carly for her part looked almost shamed- it was an expression that had Jack frowning somewhat, something that changed only slightly as the woman spoke.

“Um… I’m sorry,” she blurted, Jack narrowing his eyes in slight confusion. “Apparently, we knew each other already,” she continued, “But I don’t remember anything at all…” …Oh.

…So that was how-

“But I don’t want to just ignore that!”

“Mn?” As Jack turned back Carly continued, swallowing.

“Even though it won’t be the same as before, I don’t want to just cut off everything that happened- even if I can’t remember, Misty told me what did, so…”

So what now then? “She can’t tell you everything,” Jack commented almost flatly, Misty looking to him with a subtle glare.

Carly did not seem to notice the silent hostility between the two however, merely nodding. “M-Mn… Yes. I know. But even so.” She swallowed. “I want to try to get them back at least. I- I want to know what happened from memory instead of just what I’m told!”

Silence.

And after a few unbearable moments of it, Carly stared to the ground, unable to look at either of the others. “…I don’t want to be the reason people are upset…”

* * *

There hadn’t been much to say in response to that. Somehow his usual zeal didn’t come after she’d said that. Their silence in the end had been broken by the return of the kids however, and while Carly was visibly confused by their request that Jack race them again he agreed.

And the fact was, it seemed to get a good response from the woman- a response far better than the overall despondent nature she’d taken since realizing, in a loose sense, what had happened.

Watching the wheel-chair races, as ridiculous as they were, was something to enjoy in itself as well.

…At least until the nurses got wind of it.

“It can’t be helped!” Crow told him with a shrug, the two entering the elevator of the high-rise building Jack (thankfully) still lived in. Crow had thankfully prepared himself somewhat for a reaction to the building, since he’d offered to help Mikage with a few after effects of the battle concerning Satellite. Things like Daedalus bridge, a ferry-

Ferry wouldn’t be running for a bit though, so Mikage had nonetheless opted to find a way for him to stay off the streets until he had a more concrete way of travelling back and forth; they couldn’t call in a helicopter  _too_  much, but he wasn’t about to shatter any bonds he’d made again. Not after what had happened.

Mikage seemed almost embarrassed to tell him she’d gotten him a small motel room, and entirely surprised when his reaction was that of immense and potentially awe-struck surprise. Hell, motel room had to be bigger than his hideaway!

And apparently, Mikage didn’t realize that.

If Crow had expected the outside of Jack’s penthouse however, he assuredly did not expect the inside, and as they waited for the elevator to stop moving he couldn’t help but notice a small smirk on Jack’s face.

“Oiiiii,” he finally grumbled. “What’s with this look…”

Jack merely grinned. “See for yourself!” he responded as the elevator doors opened. The wheelchair spun out from the lift and Crow followed, coming to a large door. And when that door opened-

“HEHHHHHHHH!?”

Quite suddenly, Mikage’s unease when presenting him with what had been at the time the equivalent of a damn palace was understandable. And as Jack laughed and wheeled his way over to the kitchen from the door Crow briefly choked on his words.

“Wh-What- This is all yours!?” he exclaimed, his friend laughing.

“Of course it is!”

“What the hell do you mean ‘of course’?! Martha’s house could fit in this entire room!”

“And there’s a D-Wheel track too!”

What.

“…You’re not serious.”

A wheelchair backed out from behind the wall ahead, and a still grinning Jack paused from opening a container of cup ramen. “Want to see?”

There was only one answer to that of course.

“ ** _YES_**!”

And.

It.

Was.

 _Real_.

“How is this real.”

Hell how was it _safe_ , one wrong turn and he’d be falling a few stories! Not that the curved and tunnel like walls on the track didn’t prevent that of course, but-

Jack merely smirked. “I’m the ‘king of riding duels’; I have to train sometime!” Ahahaha.

“And here I thought you did nothing but those exhibition matches the tv’s caught occasionally.”

“GH-“

“How do you get the bikes up here anyways?” he asked, looking around the space with raised eyebrows.

Jack was all too eager to take the change in subject. “With a lift, what else?”

“So I could bring up mine?” he asked with an almost hinting tone.

“Hn! Of course!”

“And you’d let me on the track-”

“Absolutely not!”

WHAT- “AH- What? But you’re not even using it!” he protested.

“You’d ruin it!”

“HOW, it’d take a nuke to destroy this thing!”

“What’s that supposed to mean…”

“I’ve never been on a track before, come on! You can’t even race right now, you’re in a chair!”

“You want to prove that!?”

Heh?

Crow blinked, caught in a short moment of shock. Jack certainly looked plenty serious, despite (for once) having to look up at his friend to make his challenging glare. And with hands gripping wheelchair rims he repeated himself. “Prove it! Race me on the track!”

“AH-” WHAT. “You’re in a chair!”

“Then you get a chair too! Let’s go!”

“Where the hell am I going to get a chair here!?”

“Use a desk chair then!” He-!

What. “…You’re serious.”

“OF COURSE I AM!” Haha.

Hah.

Well dammit alright then! Crow grinned fiercely, unable to resist the competitive air Jack was creating. “Heh! Alright,” he laughed, “You’re on!” Time to find a desk chair!

Yea!

Yea…

Racing like that was weird. Not the bad sort of weird, the sort that sent feelings of illness down the spine, no. Just ‘weird’. It brought back memories of simpler days when there was no such thing as ‘death’, no such thing as the reality they knew now.

A time when all that had mattered was being a kid.

Charging down a professional race track in a desk chair while getting sorely outpaced by his friend made him feel more like that actually. For a moment they were laughing, shouting, taking verbal pot-shots at the other with nothing but the best intentions in mind.

By the end of it they both made use of the fact that they’d been using chairs and sat back to back in exhaustion, Jack weakly grinning with a ‘still the king’ in such a way that Crow could do nothing but laugh.

Everything that had happened these last few days- all the death and revival, all the revelations. All of this, and in the end-

“Why doesn’t she remember?”

Crow looked back slightly as Jack said this, and after a few moments of silence swallowed. “She fell out of a building didn’t she?” he asked in the end. “That’s a pretty serious blow to the head right?”

“Everyone else remembers,” he grumbled.

“Everyone else is ‘Misty’,” he replied. The unsaid question of where all the 'others' had gone was better off as such however- Demak had likely re-awoken in Peru himself, not that most of them particularly knew enough of him to put much concern into it.

They didn’t want to think about why Kiryu was gone. If anything, it was better to think he was ‘at peace’ along with Yuusei now.

It was better…

“Probably some way,” Jack muttered, mostly to himself.

“Probably better not to push it.”

“Hm!” Jack likely didn’t agree, but he didn’t say anything more on the subject.

Awkward topic that it was, Crow took the opportunity to change it. “Hey how come you got released so soon anyways?” he asked curiously. “Thought you were supposed to be there for another week.”

Jack snorted. “They didn’t think it was good to race wheelchairs.” Ah-

“Pffff-” he grinned. “You mean they kicked you out of a hospital!?”

His friend scowled, narrowing his eyes. “Supposedly all I needed was rest anyways. Tch!” Jack growled, clenching his fist. “I’d hoped to have some more races…”

“Never thought I’d see you racing a bunch of kids.”

“AH- What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You tell me! You’re the one who kept to himself once things went sour!”

“Answer the question!”

“I just did!”

“That was then!”

“You expect me to believe you pulled a turnaround like that while you were here?” Crow retorted, standing from the chair with a bitter snort. “Feeds might not be strong but I saw you. I saw your  _duels!_ ” With every word he said Jack continued to redden, and still Crow went on. “It was all a show! There was no fun in it! Maybe if you were at least having  _that_  I’d have had some respect for it, but no!” he shouted to his friend. “There was nothing! It was no better than the duels we had before-!”

“Before what?” he questioned automatically, despite the answer clearly coming to mind.

…

This was a topic none of them wanted to broach. And so, staring at the other with expressions of rage a silence fell upon them, and slowly but surely anger was replaced by a more somber mood. Turning away Crow’s jaw clenched, only for what was left of his agitation to vanish completely with Jack’s words.

“You’re right.”

“…What?”

“Before all this… I just wanted to forget everything. To drive away, and ignore what had happened.”

Crow frowned. “So what  _did_  change then?”

To be honest, he’d never seen this sort of expression on Jack’s face, nor heard this sort of tone in his voice. He wasn’t entirely certain he liked it, or even what he was meant to feel about it.

There was a genuine emotion to that tone though, and to that expression.

Which was probably why he listened in the first place. “Carly,” he began with a somewhat distant look. “When the Dark Signers began to appear, she let me stay in her apartment to recover from my duel with… Kiryu,” he said almost hesitantly. “So I told her about who he was, about what happened.” And after that? “She gave me some advice,” he finished, Crow giving a quiet snort in response as Jack looked away. “She doesn’t remember it now.”

“And what’s the ‘king’ going to do about it now?” Crow found himself asking. “Run away again?”

To his surprise, Jack didn’t answer with the expected rage. It was a quieter anger, a slow turn back with a narrow-eyed glare that had Crow unable to really continue with the suddenly antagonistic conversation.

Jack looked away. “I’ll do what she advised,” he instead answered. “Become ‘king-like’! A better king!” Er?

“A better king?”

“Right! A ‘king’ that the ‘people’ can know truly! Do you understand that?!” A… A ‘king for the people’??

He…

He found himself thinking he did to be honest. At the same time however he shook his head, walking away and pulling the deskchair behind him as he looked for the exit of the tunnel-like race track. “Heh. Too bad you can’t have memory and kingship at the same time I guess,” he sighed, leaving Jack to blink almost in surprise.

“Both?” For a moment, Jack merely frowned.

A moment longer however, and the frown became a grin of almost diabolical proportions.

“Heh! CROW!” he shouted, turning the chair around to chase after his friend. “Listen to this!”

* * *

It was with mild surprise, even after the time it had taken to get there, that Carly stood outside the door of Jack’s penthouse, equipment in hand, Misty at her side. It had been a short bit since the incident at the hospital, but Carly for her part had recovered far quicker than Jack still was- not that she was apparently the only one here, given the sounds from inside.

“Nervous?” Misty had asked sympathetically as they stood there, Carly unable to do much more than give a cracked smile in response.

“I- I d-didn’t think he’d tell me it was ok to interview him,” she admitted, a recorder loosely gripped in her shaking hand. “A-Actually, I didn’t think he’d appreciate it at all, so I was trying not to.”

Misty in response, had nodded. “True. Perhaps there’s another reason.”

“E-Ehhh?”

There had been no more time to question Misty about this- the door had opened and Crow was there, apparently not nearly as confused as she was, given the grin on his face.

‘ _You’re gonna love this_ ’ was about all he said, not even momentarily giving up any more information on what ‘this’ was.

In a few moments she didn’t have to ask any more.

It would have been ridiculous to get the hospital kids there. It should have been, in fact.

Not for the King.

Jack had a thing for honor, as it seemed. If he gave his word, he was going to keep it- and keep his word, he did.

Which was apparently why, in the event that the hospital deemed it ridiculously unsafe…

“ _GO GO GO!_ ” “ _KEEP PUSHING WE GOTTA BEAT THE KING!_ ”

…The same kids he’d been racing in the halls were now attempting to race using a series of desk chairs.

And it felt… Different, somehow. Different from the ‘Jack Atlas’ she remembered seeing on the screen, from the ‘Jack Atlas’ she always attempted to interview before. As though that ‘Jack’ hadn’t been real at all. As though he’d been nothing more than a mask.

When Jack had realized she was there, the race had somewhat been called off. The children were still rushing back and forth in their desk chairs and helmets (courtesy of Mikage, and potentially required to get the children there to begin with); Crow was supervising in fact, though given the shouts and laughs in the background ‘supervising’ was a fairly loose term. Misty in the meantime had contented herself with reading a book she’d brought in a deck chair, occasionally looking up to smile.

And as for herself.

The recorder was on, and as uneasy as her voice was she spoke, clearing her voice to begin. “A-Ah. First off, thank you for inviting me here,” Carly offered honestly. “To be honest, I didn’t expect it…”

Jack almost shrugged- the action was just short of one, at least. “Before everything, I said I would give you one.” And this was not a lie either- though the context of the interview was somewhat skewed now. 

It was enough for the moment however, and thus the interview continued. “R-Right! Ah, in that case!”

It was hard, thinking of what to ask. Even if she had forgotten everything, there was a part of her in the back of her mind that felt awkward with the usual questions. A part of her that didn’t want to jump into what she would have before meeting him, or what other reporters would ordinarily do.

So to start, “Let’s see,” she decided, a few questions slowly coming to mind as the sounds of laughter echoed in the background. “I suppose, my first question would be what inspired you to invite all of these people over? If you had simply continued recovery alone, no one would have given it second thought. So why go through the trouble of this?”

Briefly Jack frowned at that, but he answered nonetheless, his expression closer to the stern if not stone-like one he tended to have in front of all others. “For them, this is probably the happiest day of their life.”

Eh- That wasn't an answer! “Eeh?”

“When I met them at the hospital, they didn’t hide who they were, or what they wanted,” Jack continued, starting to explain the statement in a sense. “They just smiled, and said ‘ah, the king’! …They didn’t know me beyond that,” he told her. “They don’t know me beyond show duels, or whatever it is the press has! What kind of 'king' is that?” he continued to question, Carly blinking in confusion.

Something in the back of her mind.. “I-”

Jack seemed to realize that she didn’t have an answer. So, leaning back in the wheelchair he sighed. “I want to be someone people can ‘know’- a king for the people, not just a stage. …Someone important made me realize that,” he continued with a brief pause, looking to Carly with a gaze that almost made her uncomfortable. “When I was the kind of person who believed otherwise.”

“I-”

 _‘Please remember’_ , he seemed to be saying, and when she did otherwise the interview seemed to continue at an almost awkward pace. _‘Please, just one thing, remember one thing. Remember-‘_

“…F-Forgive me,” she said after a few more questions and answers, standing from the small table they were at. “I need to use the washroom, erm…”

Jack nodded, another ‘half shrug’ adding to the response. “It’s just down the hall.”

“Aa- Thank you!” Not wasting another moment, she pocketed her recorder and left for the hall, hair almost flying behind her as she rushed to find the door. One, two, and- “Aha!”

There!

“Phew…” The door closed behind her and she sighed, biting her lip. It was a little too awkward, to be honest, she told herself. She wanted to remember- Jack wanted her to remember, it was likely the others wanted her to remember too but-!

Well.

“At least he’s happier,” she supposed, staring into the mirror as she finished washing her hands. That much had to be true, right? If at least somewhat happier than before. He had his friend back after all, and it was fairly clear he had ideas for where to go next- it wouldn’t just be exhibition duel after exhibition duel, oh no! There would be many races, yes.

However, this time, he would show them more than just ‘power’.

Surely then he was happier right, she asked herself. Yes- he definitely had to be happier, right?

And as far as she could recall, the city was already building duel circuits for a planned tournament right? It wouldn’t be for a while of course, but with all that, there couldn’t have been anything wrong with-

As she passed another door on the way back from the washroom she paused, the door having been left somewhat ajar. Curiosity always did get the best of her, really. Supposedly, it was how she had died even, something that only briefly occurred to her as she peered into the room through the door crack.

It was just a bedroom really. Nothing much. And yet her curiosity seemed almost guided nonetheless, leading her into the room to look around with observant eyes. Looking to the bed, which had been neatly made. Looking to the dresser, and to the window. It was fairly clear this was just a guestroom- likely set up due to the hassle of going to the second floor of the penthouse with a wheelchair.

However it was also obviously Jack’s room. As her eyes drifted over what was present they came to stop at something that gleamed dully in the fading light from the window, the woman gaining a small frown as she moved to inspect it. Something glass, she realized, moving to pick it up. As she came closer, her eyes widened.

“Ah- My old glasses?” Why though? Why would he bother keeping those, he’d even bought her new ones, she thought as she picked up the old frames. Looking at them now of course she could see _why_  he’d bothered replacing them, but-

She didn’t move, and yet a shudder ran through her body. She didn’t even shift slightly and yet the sting of fire seared over her form, the sharp pain of her back slamming against glass coming to the front of her mind.

And before all of that there had been the hospital. Before the fires had come nurses clothes and a stand-in duel which ended in the appearance of a beast by the likes of which she’d never seen. Worried glances to a sleeping form in the back of her car, failed attempts to coax information from a man hardly interested in such things, turning into conversations of no relation to ‘interviews’, so to speak!

She had only wanted to help, she thought, hands shaking as she held the glasses and stared at them. And from her hiding place she had been met with a futile offer of ‘fair battle’, met with the fires of solid vision made real and the unforgiving concrete outside the window she had been thrown through. She had only wanted to help! She only-

“Carly?” asked a somewhat worried voice, Jack’s wheelchair coming around as he opened the door. The blond was met with Carly’s back, the woman trembling on the spot. “…Carly?” he repeated, frowning.

Slowly, tears began to fall from her eyes, welling up and pouring over beyond her control. Her hands gripped the glasses tight, and as she turned around Jack stared, silent. “I…” She choked, and as Jack came over, the woman fell to her knees. “I’m sorry,” she wept, looking to him through her tears. “I’m so sorry! I just wanted to help, but I just made things worse, didn’t I? I-  _I-!_ ”

Carly would find her tears briefly stopped as Jack’s arms came over her, the motion awkward to start with the chair, but no less appreciated. And as she stared, there was no anger in his eyes, no judgement, No 'anything'.

“It’s okay, Carly.”

Her response was less than coherent, devolving into stiffled sobs. “Mnnn- Ngh-!”

The rest of the ‘interview’ was not meant for public eye in the end, at least not unless either party felt inclined to share the oddities and tragedies of dying in memory. What words they shared together were no less treasured however. And later, when the ‘wheelchair races’ Jack had promised the children from the hospital were having their final track runs, she found herself watching with nothing but cheer.

…And perhaps even, a small bit of pride.

…

 

_. . . ._

_. . . . ._

_.  .  . **.  .  .  
**_

__

__

__

_**.   .   .  .   .   .   .  .  .** _

__

__

__

It was dark in this place, but he supposed he had expected it. It was dark and though he knew what his body looked and felt like he could neither see nor even truly feel his own presence in this place. It was difficult to even envision himself here, in fact.

That did not change the fact that he was there however. His shouts echoed through his entire being as he pulled at what held him back, trying in vain to ‘reach’ for some escape. And he was not alone in this place, oh no.

There were many others in these pits, and all of them had their words to say. Words which threatened to tear from him the last of his hopes, the last of his dreams. Words which stung and ripped and tore at his very being, words he refused to hear!

His screams drowned the laughter of the other beings out only somewhat, and his chains did not slacken. His strength faded with each pull he made, with each shout that thundered over the air but he ignored it. Escape, he told himself. Prove them wrong, he wasn’t one of ‘them’- he was ‘Fudou Yuusei’, human, spirit, nothing more nothing less ESCAPE!

Yet his weakness became too much. With labored breaths given only through habit he felt his being collapse in whatever expanse surrounded them, voices slowly rising in volume around. Taunting him, calling him. Accept it, they seemed to laugh, accept that there was nothing but darkness- the light he knew existed, the light he could  _feel_  from above was too far from reach now, and it would always be such unless he accepted his fate. Accept it, the voices seemed to echo.

Accept-

“No.” he hissed, grinding non-existent teeth and thrashing in his bonds. “NO!”

He would not give in here. He could not give in here! Yet as he pulled there was again as much give as before, and again the laughter faded only with his shouts. He couldn’t listen to these things around him, these demons which had so nearly killed all his friends- he couldn’t even allow so much as a whisper through his ears, not if he hoped to make it!

…Not if he didn’t want to lose.

He hung from his bonds and the laughter rang around him, and with that he began to quake with rage. He could not lose…

HE. COULD. NOT-

“NNNNNRR _RAAAAA **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!**_ ”

The shout echoed only slightly through the void that surrounded him.

And as he shook within the bonds that held him, the voices began their muttering taunts once more.


	45. Chapter 45

In the aftermath of all that happened with Carly and Jack it was no surprise he’d be exhausted really. The kids had gone home, the chairs put away, and all in all as fun as it was he could use a nice long sleep.

When he returned to Satellite however, he did not at all expect to see what he did. “AH- HEY!” he shouted, stopping his bike and running over to the construction workers that had gathered near the hide out. “What the hell do you think you’re doing!?”

“Our jobs maybe?” came the sarcastic response.

“That’s my home you assholes!”

The workmen snorted. “Your home?” another asked. “It’s not even big enough to be a toolshed!” he laughed, Crow merely growling under his breath.

“Well maybe for you, but that doesn’t change anything! Clear out!” the teen snarled, the workers trading looks.

“Now see here brat,” the foreman of the group warned. “The only thing getting cleared here are these buildings! It’s called construction work!”

“Yea!” added one of the other workers. “And you’d better be grateful too, boy! When this is all over you’ll have a bridge between this place and the city, not that you deserve it!” The-

“You’re tearing down this place… To build _Daedalus bridge_?”

“Daedalus?” one of them murmured. “That’s not too bad a name I guess…”

“Still means you’re out of a house brat!” Oi oi oi!!

“HEY! If you’re going to be ripping it down you can at least let me get my things out!”

“A brat like you has personal possessions?” Tch!

Crow scowled, but the workmen relented and shrugged nonetheless. “Go ahead!” they decided, the teen rushing past for the small hide-away he’d no longer be calling home. “It’ll make things easier!” Hahaha.

Yea wasn’t that just _great_.

He couldn’t really feel entirely angry about what was going on though- if anything he was stuck on a fence between two extremes as he did a final check through of what he could or couldn’t bring, lifting a cheap glowstick up as he went through the ‘basement’ of the shack. On the one hand, he was out of a home- hopefully Martha would let him stay a bit, at least until that was settled (maybe Jack?).

On the other however?

It was for the sake of the bridge. For the sake of that connection he’d dreamed of forging between the two points, and while he knew it would be a hell of a long time before anything major changed between the people, he couldn’t deny what this represented.

Which was perhaps why he was feeling so bitter.

‘ _Ah, downstairs again-_ ’

What.

Crow snapped his head up and turned as a voice echoed behind him, flashlight turning on the source in an instant. “WHO’S THERE!” he snarled, only to abruptly drop the flashlight in panic. The light illuminated something almost translucent, to be honest. Something that he could see through and yet not, something that seemed to mist and smoke a strange ethereal mist. Something- No.

Some _one_.

“…Pearson?” he choked, and as he said this the figure’s eyes widened only slightly in surprise.

 _‘You… You can see me?_ ’ the spirit asked, shock clearly written on his face. ‘ _You can **hear**  me?!_’ he questioned further, Crow merely staring at the figure he'd long since lost to flames.

How? “H-How is this possible,” he managed to rasp, voice cracking from the stress. “How are you-” Ghosts. If this had been a few weeks ago he’d say they didn’t exist. If he had never faced Yuusei in a duel, he’d say it was impossible.

And yet at this moment, Pearson was speaking as clearly as he had in life, his form almost just as much so. And as they stared at the other in silence, it was Pearson of course who broke it.

‘ _You’re just as tall as you were then,_ ’ he said with a quiet laugh. _‘I don't know how you can see me now, but it's good to be able to speak with you again._   _But what brings you down here anyway? I haven’t seen you down here for sometime._ ’ Er… …Besides the question of how long he’d been here (Since death???)

Awkward as speaking to a dead man was, there were thudding sounds coming from above that told him his time was limited. Talking would have to be later, he realized. So for now- “I’ll explain everything later. For now though… You might want to come with me, if that’s possible.”

* * *

It was indeed possible for Pearson to ‘come along’ as it seemed. For a moment when he’d returned to the bike there had been talks of how well it had been restored, and questions from the ghost on the wing-like additions on the side, but lest anyone around question him Crow quickly finished backing up and started driving.

And as they drove, they passed the buildings that were slowly being brought to a restored state, and past the streets that were slowly but surely becoming more than just a slum. They passed all of this and came to the more grassy area that Martha’s home stood ever sturdy upon, and as the bike was parked and he came to the door he sighed.

The door was knocked, and after a few moments Martha came down, opening the door to frown. “Crow?” she asked, the teen in question coughing a little awkwardly. “Did something happen?” she continued as she took in the expression. “It’s not Jack is it?”

“What-” Whaaaat- “Oh- No, Jack’s fine,” he laughed, shaking his head. “Cast’s are probably coming off in a week actually, I-” He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “I really hate to ask this but… I need a place to stay for a bit,” he admitted, Martha raising her eyebrows as Crow continued. “Heh. It turns out they’re really doing it! They’re building a bridge to Neo Domino!” he laughed. “And it ends right where my hideout is- Was,” he added after a brief moment, shaking himself.

Martha very quickly gathered what was going on from these comments however, and with a quick nod she stepped aside. “I understand,” she told him comfortingly, “You come right in then- it’ll be tight, but you’ve stayed here before after all. You can stay as long as it takes to find a new home understand?” the woman continued, Crow nodding uneasily.

“Yea… Martha, I’m really-“

“Don’t you apologize!” she warned, “This is a good thing right? A bridge will help bring this city back to its feet; it might not be a fun journey, and it’ll be hard; but in the end, it’ll be like learning to ride a bike don’t you think?” Riding a bike?

For a moment he frowned at the analogy, but after a brief silence he smirked. “Heh. Yea.” Ahhh, he got it now ahaha. “Right. I guess I’ll take the couch in the other room,” he decided, moving over to where he remembered it being.

“I’ll get you some blankets for later then,” Martha responded. “Hmmm. Actually, if there’s a bridge going up…” Eh? Martha disappeared into the other room, lost in her thoughts. “I might be able to call someone…” E-Ehhh?

Soon enough Martha was gone, and the spirit that had been ever present looked back. ‘ _She’s rather nice, isn’t she?’_

“She raised me and the others like one of her own,” he answered, albeit in a quieter tone. “When stuff started getting bad, she started looking after the other kids too.” Crow fell somewhat quiet after saying that, sitting down on the couch. “I can’t look after them like I could before now- and even then, where we were before just wasn’t safe. It’s better for them here, in the end.”

Pearson stared at him for a few moments at that- and soon enough, found himself smiling.  ’ _You’ve gotten quite responsible, haven’t you.’_

“Ah- Oii oii, what’s that supposed to mean?” he laughed weakly, before looking to the ghost as his expression. Silence fell once again, and Crow sighed, looking down. “…Why are you still here Pearson?” he asked, the spirit seeming to flinch. “I thought there was some other place the dead went in the end.”

Pearson nodded.  _‘There probably is,_ ’ he admitted. ‘ _But I can’t justify leaving now,’_  he continued somewhat sadly,  _‘I can’t stop worrying about him. Bolger,_ ’ he clarified, Crow blinking at the name.

“You’re worried about Bolger?” he asked, frowning. Hah! Go figure, but there was nothing wrong there he supposed. “Bolger’s fine last I checked. Not that I can really meet him,” the teen added with a snort. “What with him being in Neo Domino. Started some D-Wheel company I think.” And if it was the same Bolger as the one for the company name that made sense- what with 'Bolger co.' being one of the leaders in engines now.

‘ _Oh- Really?’_  Pearson asked, looking somewhat surprised. ‘ _Well it sounds like he was successful I suppose…_ ’ There was an underlying tone of ‘that’s not what my dream was’, but all the same. ‘ _I meant something else though,’_  he continued. ‘ _The evening I died, we had a duel,_ ’ Pearson told him, Crow narrowing his eyes as realization began to dawn over him. ‘ _But one of his cards had a glitch. It caused real damage, and so-‘_

REAL DA- “WHAT!?” He hurriedly closed his mouth as sounds of footsteps came from around the other end of the room.

“Crow, is everything alright?”

ERK- “Y-Yea! Just got surprised by something!” he shouted in defense. As to what something was…

Martha seemed to take that defense for the moment, and so Crow was left with the solitude needed to further his questions. “Are you saying he  _killed_  you?” he hissed, eyes wide with shock. “ _Bolger_  did this-!?”

‘ _Not intentionally!’_  Pearson snapped in defense, shaking his head. ‘ _Never intentionally- I don’t even think **he** realized what damage that monster could do. And as it was,_ ’ he laughed weakly, ‘ _The way the lantern sat behind me, it was expected wasn’t it?_ ’

“But the fire,” he protested, shaking his head. “All that rubble on top of you-” He shook, eyes quivering as Pearson sighed.

‘ _Crow. None of us could have predicted the damage done by that card- what Bolger did was all he could do, and it’s over now. But I know him,_ ’ he continued sadly.  _‘I know how he is! He hasn’t forgotten what happened, and I know he hasn’t moved on from it. And I can’t leave him like that- not when **I’ve**  forgiven him._’

“But  _how_  can you forgive him?” he hissed in an almost broken voice. “He  _killed_  you-“

‘ _He didn’t mean it._ ’

“He killed you and he  _didn’t say anything!_ ”

‘ _Why do you think it still hurts **him**?_ ’

He- “…” Crow couldn’t respond to that, merely staring with wide eyes.

‘ _I just want him to realize it’s alright,_ ’ Pearson continued calmly, his tone almost morose. ‘ _That’s all._ ’

That’s all? That was it, nothing more?

For a few moments Crow continued to stare.

And in the end, moved toward the door. ‘ _Crow?_ ’

“Martha!” Crow called out, opening the door as the woman looked back from the kitchen. “I need to run out for something!”

“At this time of night?” she protested.

Crow merely grinned, and shrugged. “Don’t worry!” he called back. “I’ll be back soon enough!” The door shut behind him, and Pearson floated along with the teen to frown.

‘ _Crow,’_  he asked almost hesitantly. ‘ _What are you-_ ’

“It’s just something I need to do,” he told the ghost, moving to the bike and unhitching the trailer he’d used to carry his things over. “Trust me.”

He knew what he was doing.

* * *

Admittedly, he’d been lucky to catch Bolger at the building he’d suspected was his.  _Very_  lucky in fact- Bolger had been working late.

But as Bolger watched a bike from old and haunting memories pull up, seeing nothing but a young man in a jacket and helmet, he seemed to freeze in well hidden mental terror before calming as the bike stopped. It was obviously not Pearson after all- and how could it have been, his thoughts seemed to laugh bitterly, that was impossible.

He’d seen that fire.

He’d seen him  _die_.

This was not something he expected nonetheless. “Crow?” he asked with wide eyes, watching as the young man pulled his helmet off and did nothing more than nod. He’d heard there was an active ferry between Neo Domino and Satellite in place now, but to see someone use it?

Impossible. No one would dare.

“It’s been a long time, Bolger,” Crow started in response, his tone feeling far less ‘warm’ and ‘greeting’ and more like the chilled voice of a questioning policeman. “Life got a bit better for you huh.”

Bolger stared for a moment, and in the end nodded. “I suppose,” he decided. And after a few moments spent in awkward silence, he continued. “You fixed the Blackbird,” he observed, eyes somewhat distant.

“Yea. I did,” Crow responded. “I’m not here to talk about the Blackbird though,” he continued with an almost stiff voice. And as Bolger narrowed his eyes, Crow continued. “I’m here about the night you left.” And as Bolger visibly grew tense, he pressed the topic further. “I’m here about the duel you had with Pearson that night. I’m here about the fire that you caused, and the wreckage you brought that trapped him there.”

“I don’t think you know what you’re talking about,” Bolger stiffly responded, the lack of anger in his tone sadly giving him away. “This is what you came here for? To bring up old memories?”

“Do I even have to?” Crow asked. “You never forgot right?”

“If this is all you’re here for-“

“No. It’s not,” he cut in, looking over Bolger with narrowed eyes. Bolger, who looked ready to run. Who had a twitch in his hand suited not for attack but for a round glass that would likely be filled with a strong hard drink soon enough, who wanted to forget even more than Jack ever had when death affected him as well.

Suddenly, the reason Pearson wanted to forgive him before moving on made sense.

“I didn’t come here to just spit accusations,” Crow continued. “I came to say I _forgive_ you.”

Bolger’s expression was a look not only of mixed shock but even anger. “ _What_?”

“And so does he,” he went on, Pearson’s spirit merely smiling from beside him. “You don’t have to worry about that- it’s over.”

“Over?” Bolger questioned almost angrily, shaking his head. “What would even give you the right to speak for a  _dead man_?” The rage grew, and the two before him frowned. “I don’t know what brought this on- but a murderer can’t be forgiven, Crow! So don’t call me one!”

“Murder isn’t the same as this!”

“I’ll be the judge of that!” he countered, Crow’s eyes widening briefly in the shock.

So. “That how it is then?” he asked, glancing to Pearson beside him. “You think running off and bottling it is any better?” The redhead gave a sharp, bitter laugh at that, shaking his head. "Telling me not to call you a murderer when you don't even believe that's true?"

There was no response, and Crow said nothing more. What else could he say? What else could he do, he didn’t have proof for this! The fact that he was even here was as much proof as he had! So what now then?!

‘ _Challenge him to a duel,’_  Pearson told him, Crow turning back to listen to him for a moment.

“A duel?” he muttered in response, and from across them Bolger narrowed his eyes. Something had been flickering behind Crow since he arrived, something that reminded him all too much of someone long dead. As though his friend were channeling himself into reality through the boy, for the sheer sake of dredging forth memories he constantly tried to abandon.

Crow seemed to listen to something unseen-

And in a moment, look back to him with eyes that sparked with new drive. “You don’t believe me?” he asked him, Bolger not even having the chance to answer. “Fine. We’ll duel instead- I win, you come clean about this!” he announced, if only to get at least that part of ‘justice’ settled.

“And if I win?” Bolger asked, narrowing his eyes.

Again Crow paused, and after some obvious hesitancy he answered.

“…You get the Blackbird.”

Bolger said ‘yes’.

He said yes and to his surprise led him back into the building he’d cornered him outside of, opening the door with a quick card scan at the entrance and leading him through to a sight reminiscent of Jack’s roof.

A testing track was what this was, apparently. And as he held the Blackbird steady, he waited for Bolger to prepare his own ride for the duel. A testing track- meant to test the limits of speed.

Something that Bolger had him beat out for.

And as they drove, he shouted to the one before him and tried to convince him in the same way as before. Just let it go- let it be over with, done with, move ON!

Pearson wouldn’t let himself do that until Bolger did, after all.

“Why bother hiding?” he shouted, shaking his head. “Why can’t you just accept it? He’s forgiven you, don’t throw that away!”

“ _Forgiven_ me?” Bolger retorted, already in the lead for the duel. “You think that sort of thing can be ‘let go’? I’ll show you!” he shouted back, Crow finding his blood running cold for some reason. “I’ll show you why it’s impossible!”

He’d show him more than that, in fact.

He'd show him the same thing Pearson saw before his death.

“Shit.” Crow swallowed, and Pearson, from where he floated beside him at the speed of the bike, balked.

“BLOOD MEPHISTO!” Bolger had announced, the cloaked devil appearing in a whirl of light. This was the end- this was what had brought the end.

SHIT!

Quite suddenly he realized what Pearson meant when he said something had been wrong with this card. When each strike from the monster sent his bike into a barely running state, requiring all his strength to focus on the duel.

Even with this however- even as Bolger shouted for him to simply give in, and as Pearson asked, _‘are you alright!?_ ’ As Bolger told him the rest of the story.

Of the offer he had been made.

Of the offer Pearson had refused, an act that had led to their duel.

The offer he’d taken anyways. Yet even as his blood boiled with rage, the fact remained that Pearson’s outlook did not change. He seemed to almost know that this would have and had happened.

He still wanted to forgive his friend. And with that fact made clear, he tightened his grip on the bike’s handles.

“I won’t stop," he rasped, with a dry throat, "Until you’ve realized… How pointless it is to keep ignoring what’s right in front of you!”

There was another card in the database of this bike, and yet it did not exist in his deck. Another card, one that Pearson’s own presence seemed to pull at.

‘ _Crow_ ,’ he asked, the spirit reaching for the screen and cutting the boy’s words short as it came to his turn yet again. ‘ _Use this_.’

‘This’?

If he accessed the extra deck from the screen, a passcode screen would appear. He’d never managed to crack it, and when he thought about the possible consequences he didn’t try any other means to break into it either. Now however?

Pearson whispered four numbers- and as Crow repeated them under his breath the code filled in and faded. And the card appeared on the screen.

And he made his move, entirely unaware of the crimson glow that his arm gave as he did so. “Bolger!” he shouted, the materials for his synchro summon gleaming as they scattered around themselves. “Even with all that you’ve done, it doesn’t matter!” Crow insisted. “The pain will never leave- I know that, and you know it too, right? But that just means you need to accept it, and take the consequences that go with it! We’ve forgiven you, Bolger!” he roared, and with every word the Black Wing Dragon absorbed more and more damage from their opponent, white feathers slowly becoming dyed black and red as Pearson looked up to the beast in silence. “SO NOW!”

The dragon roared. And as Pearson looked back to Bolger, the duelist ahead of them seemed to freeze, body becoming as ice. And for a moment it seemed, both their eyes met- with one reacting in confusion, the other in shock, fear-

“CAN YOU FORGIVE YOURSELF, BOLGER?”

The attack was called as the dragon’s effect came into play, and the fires of Blackwinged Dragon slammed against Bolger’s d-wheel. The engine locked and the bike froze in place, steam erupting from the front.

Coughing, Bolger stumbled from the device to look ahead where Crow as well came to a stop. Or rather, at what lay between the two.

“It’s impossible,” he murmured, more to himself than anything. Tears gathered in the corners of his eyes and he took a shaking step forward, looking to the spirit of the man before him. “You’re-”

‘ _You don’t need to blame yourself anymore,_ ’ Pearson whispered, smiling to his friend. ‘ _What’s done is done. Do the right thing,_ ’ he told him. ‘ _Move on._ ’

“You’re-”

‘ _I forgive you…_ ’

The spirit began to fade away with those very words, leaving two living duelists to stare at the empty space in silence. As smoke cleared, and fog as well.

And as the words, ‘thank you’ hovered on the air, leaving nothing but the quiet of the night sky behind.

* * *

The wind blew calmly behind him as he stood  before the enclosed stone marker, hands stuffed in his pockets as he gave a sad smile.

“Hey,” he started, voice quiet as he looked over the tombstone. “You’ve got a decent resting place now,” he commented. “Not that you probably need it where you are but… It’s better than what I had, right?” he asked.

“Bolger’s come clean about what happened,” Crow continued. “So if there were still any worries, you don’t need them any more alright? He knows you don’t blame him any more. And he’s going to face what he needs to. Alright?”

The wind blew at a somewhat different beat for a moment, before returning to its regular rhythm and he smiled. “Things are gonna be okay, Pearson; it was good to see you again, too. It’s-  _I’m glad_ ,” he managed to whisper. “…I’m glad you got to move on.”

The stone before him was shining, polished and clearly new. And in front of it was a small ‘cup’ of sorts, into which he put the flower he’d managed to get for the ‘visit’. What a night that had been, he thought to himself with a short sigh.

What a crazy, hectic night.

He got on the D-Wheel and drove from the cemetery  shaking his head. Well. After all, it was ‘over’ now right? They could rest easy knowing that, right?

Crow pulled from his pocket a note that Martha had given him not long before, glancing at the address scribbled upon it before turning his focus to the streets themselves. One turn upon one street, a left onto another- With a bit of navigating he found himself in a cul-de-sac, parking the bike at the entrance of a large clock-store and pulling his helmet off.

He moved off from the bike, double checking the paper in his hand before nodding to himself.

And after knocking on the door and waiting for a short time, he watched as an elderly woman with small glasses came to open it for him.

“…Hello?” she asked almost curiously, as though not expecting any to knock on that particular door.

Crow gave a weak smile, and stowing the note in his pocket, spoke. “Hi. …You’re ‘Zora’ right?” he started, the old woman nodding as she looked down to him. “I’m Crow,” he continued. “…Martha said you had a room I could rent.”

Everything was going to be alright, he thought as Zora nodded and motioned for him to follow her inside. Everything would be fine

Perfectly…

…Fine…

. . .

 

.  .  .  .  .   .   .

 

 

.   .   .   .   .   .     .     .     .

 

 

.       .       .        .         .          .

 

 

 

.                   .                 .                     .

 

 

“ ** _HRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH_**!”

 

 

. . .

 

He hung from his bonds unable to move and unable to breathe, not that, as the voices taunted, he had ever really needed to. Even shouting was not technically possible in this place, being merely a construct his mind formed for each thought he had. An exhaustion of power that would end in nothing, nothing at all.

Thrashing against his ‘cell’ did nothing, reaching for what was before him, what he  _knew_  was before him, did nothing.

He needed to conserve this strength, if he wished to survive. He had to conserve it, hold it close if he wanted to keep himself sane, but wasn’t that the same as giving in? Wouldn’t that be no better than sitting as the voices overtook him, as the cackling echoed through his ears?

The beings around him merely howled with laughter as the thoughts came to mind, words of false comfort floating around him, chuckling, pulling, tearing…

It was hopeless, wasn’t it? There was no way to escape regardless of who or what he was, there was no escape from the beings around him. Hopeless, wasn’t it? Perhaps if he had been alone, it would have been fine. Perhaps then he could have simply entered a long, peaceful sleep, a final release from all that happened.

The voices laughed at the prospect and spoke louder. And so in response, he clenched his jaw and growled, as though such a simple sound would somehow drown out those of the others.

He hung from his bonds in his minds eye only, and as these thoughts came to mind he found himself bitterly wishing nothing more than for the scum buried with him to at least shut up and let him simply sleep during his time here. He found himself thinking to himself, as his body charged itself with rage-

That he wanted nothing more than for all the monsters trapped with him to die.

And as this thought came to mind it occurred to him the years it would be before this happened, the time that would pass ( _but really how much had passed?_ ), the time yet to come ( _how much even remained?_ ), the change that would pass over the world.

Everyone would be dead. Everyone he wanted to protect from these fiends locked in the pit with him would be dead.

The voices poked and prodded at these thoughts of his, and yet this time he did not entirely notice.

So focused was he upon the rage that filled his body after all, that his mind had already been clouded.


	46. Chapter 46

After the end of the ‘war’ against the Dark Signers, it was incredible how quickly things fell back into normalcy for them. Perhaps it was tied to the fact that their parents had enrolled them in a Middle School- there was hardly any time to argue really, and most of the others would be hospitalized right?

By the time they did have free time, everyone was gone really. Jack was still recovering, there was no way for them to know where Crow went (not that they really knew him), and as for Aki…

Well.

Aki seemed to have dropped off the map, given the fruitlessness of her parents efforts to find her.

Yet time moved on and so did life. Three months came and went, and soon it was no longer April, but instead the start of July. Summer was here- and with that, free time returned.

“Mou, I don’t see the point in doing all this for a clock,” Rua grumbled as they walked, his sister shaking her head.

“It’s a very special clock, and it’s for mum,” she sighed. “She said she was going to come and spend the summer with us right?”

Rua merely snorted at that. “Hm! She never comes though! Something always comes up, and then she and dad have to keep working, so all they do is send us passes for Kaibaland or something!” He crossed his arms, scowling. “We’ve been there too many times, it’s not fun any more!”

“Ahahaaaa.” Ruka didn’t really have much to say in the face of that. The fact was, there wasn’t much else to send them to, aside from maybe an aquarium or something, and there was no doubt that those ‘resources’ had been exhausted as well really. Looking away from her brother with a sigh, these thoughts were cut short however- “Oh?”

“Eh? What is it?” As Ruka stopped, Rua frowned, only to blink as he followed her line of sight to a large sign. “Er- Isn’t this a Clock Store?”

Ruka merely nodded, and after sharing a look to each other they ran to inspect the sign. It was affixed to the wall, and in all actuality not immediately noticeable unless one stood at the angle they were at now. It included an arrow pointing down the ramp it sat above, and, along with the painting of a simple black bird, read ‘Blackwing Repairs’.

“Blackwing?” Rua repeated, only to stiffen. “AH- You don’t think!”

”.. _.Crow_??”

* * *

“Oiiii! Crow!” 

“Eh- ACK-” Crow hissed as an audible thud came through the air, the teen pulling himself out from under a hanging test bike he had in the garage. “Sfffff…”

Crow’s garage had not been in business at all long to be honest. Getting the funds to actually set the garage up in fact had been somewhat difficult- while he was perfectly content (if not even elated) to work with what had been left behind in the garage-loft he was renting, a majority of Neo Domino had certain legal standards for places that repaired D-Wheels. As Zora’s garage had not been in use for some time, it thus took a bit of shuffling around to get things up to par- not to say he didn’t in the end.

By the time Crow had done this however, Zora had spread word of his work to a small number of people. That small number led him to make a few house calls (which initially ended rather awkwardly given the typical reaction to his markers). And the success of the house calls led to a few garage jobs.

And overall by the time the official rulings and guidelines for the coming ‘World Riding Grand Prix’ were released, he was assured of the fact that he’d have enough for rent and food.

It also meant that, at the same time, Jack had fully recovered from his injuries against the Dark Signers- and between his title as ‘duel king’ and an already strong reputation (though supposedly there were others disputing that…), he was likely going to find a sponsor with ease.

Or at least he would if this were a tournament meant for  _one_  duelist.

As Crow rubbed his head and scowled Jack seemed to pay the injury no mind, instead rushing down the ramp from the upstairs entrance with forms in hand. “Crow! You need to fill this!” he shouted, his friend merely scowling.

“Fill what? And stop shouting, my head is pounding dammit!”

“Do you want to duel for the tournament or not?!”

“LESS SHOUTING.”

Jack looked notably disgruntled about  _not_  shouting, but apparently his excitement for the events yet to come far over powered that. “The announcements have been released,” he said, handing Crow the papers as his friend idly put down his tools. “They’re taking the applications for tournament goers for the next two months!”

“Ehhh- To the end of summer huh.”

“Mn?” Jack turned, blinking as he realized there were two others there. “AH- You two?!”

Rua stiffened. “Eeeeeeh?? What’s that mean, ‘us two’!?”

“It’s obvious he wouldn’t expect us to be here,” Ruka muttered in response, “Most kids don’t stay in garages in their free time.”

“But it’s Crow’s garage!”

“Most kids aren’t friends with people this much older than them.”

“It’s not  _THAT_  much!”

As the others stared it didn’t take long before attention moved away from the now bickering twins and back to the papers. Headache subsiding Crow looked over them, one hand flipping through as he skimmed.

“Wow, they gave us a lot of headway,” he noted, staring at the expected ‘start date’. “We’ve got months.”

“Of course! That’s standard!”

“Really?” Huh. Crow looked back to the papers, shrugging. “Well, with this I might have time to work on some engine upgrades; Blackbird’s not going to make a pro-tournament with what she has now.”

Jack grinned. “Good! Then you’re in!”

“Of course I’m in, you think I’d miss this!?”

“Hm! I had to check didn’t I?”

“Well as it is now, we might not make it anyways if we don’t send something in for a special request!”

That got Jack’s attention. “W-What!?”

The papers were held up to his face, Crow scowling. “It says teams of three, Jack! How many of us here?”

“Two! But since when would that stop us?!”

“SINCE IT SAYS  _WE NEED THREE_!”

…Oh. “It’s… Required!?”

The papers were snatched from Crow’s hands and while the two devolved into mutterings over one rule or the other, a fifth person poked her head in from up the ramp. It was fairly obvious to her that those inside were more than busy. She’d probably have more luck waiting outside in fact.

However as she quietly walked inside she somehow found the room rather compelling in a sense, almost familiar- not the structure of course. No that was far from it.

But the ‘sense’ it gave. The smell of motor oil and engine parts, the presence of worn tools and metal; over the air idle conversation echoed, passing in one ear and out the other and leaving subconscious triggers tingling at the back of her mind. There was just something about everything, and as she looked around the room she failed to notice the twins look up to watch. Something about this room she thought to herself, looking to the test-bike that Crow had been working on.

It was supported quite strongly- clearly meant for someone to sit on the device despite not even having wheels beneath it. It wouldn’t run for the moment either- there were no connections, it was really only hung up for work beneath the vehicle to be honest.

And as she looked over this device she could hear Jack and Crow still talking-

_‘well this is a problem’ ‘maybe, maybe not? if we send in a letter.’ ‘we can’t get a sponsor until we solidify the team!’ ‘are you serious!?’_

She had no idea what they were saying really, Carly thought to herself. The woman adjusted her glasses and peered at the blank screen of the D-Wheel, idly listening to the conversation going on around her.

‘“Well, either way, it’ll be better if we just find another duelist then.”

“Mn! It’d be difficult even for me to get a sponsor if we went in with two!”

“Hahhh, go figure most of the duelists we know aren’t even in the country though!” Ah, that was right, Misty was in France now wasn’t she?

Briefly she wondered if her own dueling was at all up to par to be honest. What were the others talking about anyways?

“Well we have two months before the tournament applications close!” Jack declared, Carly half jumping from where she was sitting.

“They have limited spots!” Crow snapped, only for Carly to cut in through her surprise.

“E-Ehh- Tournament?” They were talking about the tournament!?

The boys turned, likely to make a dry comment on how obvious it was what they were talking about only to freeze.

“Mn- Carly!” Jack started, blinking in slight surprise. “…When did you come in here?”

“Ehhh-” She blinked. “Maybe… Five minutes ago?”

“And you sat on the D-Wheel, _WHY_?” Crow asked with an almost strained voice.

Silence came over the room, as the four stared toward her. Quite suddenly she felt like a small child who had been caught trying to steal cookies from the top shelf, in plain sight, and unable to hide. “E-Ehhh-” Oh no. “S-Sorry!” she exclaimed. “I just felt like sitting on it, to be honest!” The woman swallowed, looking away. “If you want, I’ll just go back outside…”

Surprisingly enough, Crow shrugged. “Well, if you want to help test it I guess that’s fine. Ah-” He stopped, catching an odd expression on Jack’s face as the man stepped forward.

“Carly,” he started seriously. “Have you ridden a D-Wheel before?” Mn?

Wasn’t that obvious? “What are you talking about Jack, she dueled you on one didn’t she-” Crow stiffened, as though realizing what Jack was getting at himself- Carly for her part just wished she knew what it was they both thought of.

“Ehhh- To be honest, I don’t remember…”

Crow grinned. “You might not, but your body definitely does!” he laughed. “A real beginner would have rattled the chains getting on that  thing!”

“AH- Really??” As she said this the expressions of the two slowly grew into almost demonic grins, bringing quite a strong chill down her spine. “E-Ehhh- Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Carly?” Crow asked with a still unsettling grin. “Do you have a rider’s license?”

“Ah. N-No?” she responded with a broken laugh. “It’s expensive to train for, I-“

“In that case, don’t worry about a thing!” Jack laughed. “I’ll pay for you to get one!”

“EH!?!” What what what!? “T-That’s nice but-” They weren’t- “You want me to compete!?”

“You can duel can’t you?” Crow asked. “You’ve done it before!”

“But I don’t even remember-“

Jack of course, merely grinned. “That’s what training is for!” Wh-What-

“What about my job!?”

That one, for a brief moment, had Crow and Jack both stumped.

At least until the twins chimed in with their own two cents.

“You could use a helmet camera!” Rua cheered, Carly looking back to the two from the D-Wheel.

“H-Helmet… Camera?”

“If you used a camera from the duels, you’d have the sort of shots that no reporter could ever hope to get, neh?” Ruka offered quietly. “It would be perfect for you right?”

“And even if you can’t do it for work, if you started a website for it I bet loads of people would watch..! It’d be so cool, and everyone likes dueling!”

“And it would be somewhat easier to get into when accompanied by your articles.”

“And people would watch it, and it’d be like THEY were dueling, and-“

“And even off field, you’d still capture a lot of behind-the-scenes things in the pit right?”

“Eee _eeehhh_.” Somehow, Carly found herself unable to argue coherently about this.

Which meant, grinning faces restored, Crow and Jack were back on track.

“Then it’s settled!” Jack announced, looking down to Crow. “When are the next tests?”

It took only a moment for Crow to pull up a search on the computer at the far side, and throwing up a thumbs-up he grinned. “Next week!”

“HahaHAH! To the track then!”

“EHHHH???”

“We could probably get a helmet for you pretty easily.”

“E-Ehhhhh-”

“And Misty said you still had your cards from then, which means you just need to get familiar with the deck!”

“W-What??”

Just-

Just what was even going on!?!

She was still asking this question many days later, typical clothing replaced with a suit that had Jack doing a double take when he initially spotted her in it, and a fair number of bruises still lightly stinging from the days prior.

“W-Wua _aaaaa_. What am I even doing here?” she lamented, fighting the urge to adjust the glasses which weren’t currently there. The contacts itched a little really, she probably hadn’t put them in properly at all! 

And all she could hear from the stands behind her was _‘you can do it! we’ve been training all week for this!_ ’

“Mnnnnn. I’ve only been crashing all week though!” she cried to herself, clutching her helmet close. She shook somewhat on the waiting bench, only for her attention to be pulled up by the sound of chuckling. “Eh?”

“Well well!” one of them whistled. “We’ve got a lady~”

E- Ehhh?? As she stared the boys continued to laugh, another of them grinning rather maliciously. “Look here girly, this is a place for strong men like us ok? But you know, that doesn’t mean we can’t share a little something later~” he added with a wink, Carly finding herself beet red with embarrassment.

“A-AAaaaAAAAAH-“

“Oiiiii!” a rough voice growled from the other side of the small group. “Keep your misogyny to yourselves and line up, before I fail you all!”

“Yipe-!” “S-Sure thing sir!”

Aha.

Carly swallowed, biting her lip. This was not at all helping her nerves, oh no; between the number of times she’d crashed before successfully making even one run on the training course, and the fact that there were people watching in the stands (likely restrained too in Jack’s case, if he hadn’t shown up when the fellow exam takers started their heckling.) made it worse.

She pulled the helmet on, watching as the first three ran through their tests. The first one went too fast, shooting past the corner. The next one just went too slow. And the third leaned the wrong way, skidding against the grou-

“NEXT!”

“Y-Yes!!” Ahhh! This man just reminded her of her boss, this wasn’t good at all!

Even so she pulled herself onto the D-Wheel, forcing herself to take a deep breath and wait for the signal to go. She just needed to pass the corner, she told herself. Make the corner and everything would be fine right? Fine!

“GO!” came the shout, and as the engine roared she took off driving. Keeping the speed to the ‘healthy point’- Approaching the curve and preparing to lean in-

And… She…

The corner passed and she righted the bike without thought, continuing on her way and blinking. “I-” She did it?

The bike came to a stop in the end, and as the instructor nodded her voice caught in her throat. She’d done it hadn’t she? She’d really done it!

She-

“Only one of you passed!” they were told as they lined up, the woman gripping her helmet lest she forget it in her excitement. “And that one is…” Aaaaaahhh! She did it, she did it, she- “Carly Nagisa!”

“Aaaaaahhh!!”

Shouts were sounding from the sides, and if she turned she would likely see a number of others attempting to hold Jack back again. ‘congratulations!’ they were shouting.

“Wua _aahhh_ -” She- She did it! She-

“I expect to see you here in one week for the Dueling Exam!” the examiner barked, snapping Carly from her stupor in an instant.

“Eh- D-Duel… Exam?”

Aaah. Yes.

_The dueling exam._

As she stood by the stands, not even the bike that she’d been surprised with a few days prior would calm her nerves. Oh, it was a  _wonderful_  bike! A gleaming golden-yellow, with an almost wing-like back to it. It was beautiful and drove so smoothly and, and…

And…

What was she doing here!?

“Hey!”

“AAAH-!” She jumped, fumbling with her helmet and turning to the one behind her in the stands. “J-Jack!!”

Jack merely smirked, his arms crossed. “Don’t worry!” he assured her. “You’re one of those who came close to defeating me,” he continued. “You’ll win this easily!”

Ahhh- “But that was then!” she protested. “I don’t even remember-“

“You’ll be fine!” he cut in, and before she could say anything more there was a call from the side for her turn. “Don’t worry!”

“W-Wu _ehhhh_.” She swallowed, but nodded nonetheless. Don’t worry, don’t worry! She stuffed her helmet on and grabbed the deck she’d had beside her, slotting it into the holder of the D-wheel and pulling it to the track. Don’t worry don’t worry don’t-

AAAAAHHHH but how could she not!?

“Beat me,” the security officer told her, “And the license is yours!” Hihhhh. “Not that you’ll come close…”

“Wuaaaahhh…” No no no no no, this was-

The lights ahead twinkled from one shade to the other and as the bikes started she swallowed. Three.

Two.

One-!

The bikes tore off for the corners, and as the sound of a shuffling deck entered her ears something seemed to click in the back of her mind. The bike came to the first corner- and as with the first exam, she took it.

For some reason however, as the screen announced the turn order, she didn’t feel so scared any more. And drawing the cards from her deck and setting them in the holder at the side, she realized…

She knew this deck.

She knew this feeling, she knew these cards! She could-

“I go first!” she announced with new strength in her voice, Jack and the others grinning knowingly from the stands. “I summon Fortune Lady Lighty!” Carly continued, the monster appearing to the side, “And I set one card! End turn!” She could do this!

And as she drove, she realized-

She _wanted_ to do this too!

Cards were drawn, were summoned were commanded, and through it she couldn’t help but smile.

At least until the sound of ‘thunder’ came over the air.

And in the stands there were enraged shouts at what no occurred, with curious and potentially terrifying levels of silence from one as he looked to the side at three others. And from ahead her opponent looked back, as if to say _‘and what will you make of this?’_

For a moment, she didn’t know what to make of it at all.

But as her muscle memory took over, steering the bike and spinning it round, there was no worry at all.

“Ah- BACKWARDS!?” Crow protested from the stands with wide eyes, watching as the bike easily skirted around the pipes that were falling from above. “But we didn’t teach her that!”

“Then who did?” Rua questioned, Ruka merely staring in confusion.

Who indeed?

In the end there was no real way of knowing. The duel was won and the bike pulled up, and while it was curious how the three from before were suddenly missing (not to mention there was blood on Jack’s knuckles…), she couldn’t be bothered to really pay it much mind. She couldn’t keep this grin off her face, as Crow gave a thumbs up, and as Jack laughed and shouted something about a celebration. As the twins revealed their own present, having figured that Jack would likely forget about the ‘job’ aspect of all of this and purchasing a helmet camera themselves. As the forms were filled, as the papers were handed in.

Even if she had to take that ‘website blogging’ option. Even if she had to do that.

She found herself wishing for this moment to never end…

Never…

. . .

 

.  .  .  .

 

 

_.   .   .   .   ._

_.    . **.      .      .      .**_

__

__

__

__

_.      .        .           .              ._

_.                 .                            ._

.  .  .

 

 

He did not ask for this. 

No.

He had  _never_  asked for this, he thought to himself. A shot to the head and it should have been over, all of it!

Hell, it hadn’t even hurt, that shot.

Not compared to what followed at least. Being dragged from the edges of the veil itself into  _this_.

He had never asked for any of this, he found himself thinking bitterly. For the pain that was numbing him to the bones that he lacked, for the constant droning of the voices around him.

Why did he even bother trying to think of his body, he thought to himself with a mental snarl. It hadn’t even been his! Just some mock up formed by a demonic god that now howled with laughter in the back of his mind.

He couldn’t even remember his face, not really. He’d long since forgotten what his eyes looked like, having seen nothing but the blue of Ccapac’s marks after he awoke from his ‘death’, and before even that, death itself left him no way of seeing his reflection.

He avoided reflections as it were, not that it mattered now. He didn’t even technically  _have_  eyes, right? He didn’t even physically exist now, right?

The voices chittered away around him, scolding him. It would be 5000 more years of this, 5000 no more no less. He thought time had passed?

It hadn’t even budged, not by their standards.

5000 more years of this. Of the voices hauntingly calling to him, telling him to simply  _deal with it_. He was here, he wasn’t leaving. Either accept it and become one of them now or become one of them later. It would happen eventually.

It always did.

His mistake, most likely, was asking what they meant by that. Picturing faces to go with the long bound gods, the demons of the earth. Stretching his precious thought to gather new information and not even realizing that as he spoke to the many before him, there was yet one who began to nibble what was no longer clutched so tightly.

All that time, he’d been so concerned with what his face looked like, and whether there was a point to such a thing-

The existence of a name didn’t even register in the end.

After all.

_They were all nameless, were they not?_


	47. Chapter 47

If one asked where she intended to go leaving Neo Domino, she would find herself unable to answer. If one asked however, they would additionally be given the cold response that they had no business in knowing, which was possibly why as she took what she had and fled, she was so able to vanish from the sight of the city’s otherwise immaculate tracking system.

Perhaps also, it was aided by how long she could stay on the train however.

By how long it took to realize that outside the city limits, there was no ‘Black Rose Witch’, no ‘demon psychic duelist’ so openly feared. Her face was a face, nothing more nothing less, and while a part of her instinctively pulled from Divine’s words and prepared to change this she held back just as quickly.

It was good that she had, in the end.

The train did not last, and soon she had need to walk. What she wore was not suited for such things, and with difficulty she managed to at the very least trade what she wore for something else. What she had only lasted so long when it came to purchasing food and board, and in the end purchasing even just food became difficult.

Yet by some stubborn will she traveled onward, stewing in her rage all the while. And as she traveled, she came to realize that her ‘powers’ were not so unique as she thought.

Demons existed, after all.

And demons as it seemed, _loved_ to prey on those who were like them.

Suddenly her powers were tools of self-defense and not fear, a shield against the inhuman as she fled to more rural locales. A blade to the Ushi-Oni, a flame for the Nue, and through it all she took what she could and traveled still onward. There would be no sense in doubling back- particularly not now when such battles appeared constantly, when such ruinous remains formed a trail behind her.

Yet all the same, she had no idea as to where she would go next.

She was alone, save the monsters in her deck, summoned not only for battle but also company lest she lose her mind from the silence. It was with their help that she could at least catch and cook  _something_  of a meal, however small and however burned it ended up. It was with their help that the rains from above didn’t pelt her, that she found shelter away from the cities that would slowly but surely be on the look out for a ‘young woman with red hair’.

She was alone, and of this she was certain.

And yet she traveled still south, walking the dusty gravel road in cheap sandals that had long since replaced her high-heeled boots and gripping the shawl she carried not for warmth (for indeed, the heat was unbearable now), but rather for something soft when the time came to sleep. Her feet kicked at dirt and stone both, her ears ignorant to the passing vehicles which occasionally drove by.

Save this one.

As the car pulled to a stop beside her she turned, frowning. “You alright miss?” an elderly man asked from the driver’s seat, Aki merely looking back with an almost automatic look of apathy. The old man seemed unaffected however, merely adjusting his straw hat and continuing. “You look like you’ve been walking a few miles too many,” he continued, the woman beside him nodding.

“This isn’t the place for one so young to be walking on her own,” the elder gently scolded. “Please, come take a ride with us- you look as though you haven’t had a bite to eat in days!”

It was likely that this was an exaggeration on their part, but despite that Aki found herself looking to the side and swallowing, the pain in her stomach quite suddenly reminding her of its presence. She had indeed been having troubles with food.

And while she could catch some meat with the duel monster’s help, that was not in any way a healthy diet.

So then, she didn’t refuse as she had initially thought of doing. “…Alright,” she instead decided, moving to the back door and allowing herself in.

She sat down and as she idly buckled herself in at the elder’s requests, she felt the car move.

And from beside her, a small girl beamed, catching the woman off guard.

“Mnn _nnnn_!~ You’re pretty~” she sang, Aki snorting in response.

“Hn. Hardly.”

The girl didn’t seem too convinced of this, and continued to beam. “You’re like the pretty lady from the mountain~”

“Mn?”

Chuckling came from the front. “Suki, we were the only ones on that mountain! You’re remembering a dream.”

“But I saw her!”

“Oh _hh_ Suki.” The old woman chuckled, and, spying the frown now on Aki’s face mistook it for something else. “Don’t mind my granddaughter. She has a very vivid imagination,” she chuckled, Aki looking to the girl as the frown persisted.

She didn’t say anything in response to that however. Overall, she didn’t like speaking at all. When they reached the secluded home of the elders she did nothing more than patiently stand outside in their yard to stare at the small bits of woods that remained around them, watching the steadily darkening sky until a call for ‘dinner’ was announced.

As for what dinner was, it was likely she would have scoffed at it half a year ago.

Right now however, it was more than she could have dreamed, and as she scarfed down the rice hungrily she was entirely unaware of the stares from the elderly couple.

‘ _It seems we were right to assume she was hungry_ ,’ they would murmur among themselves later. ‘ _Poor girl! What a hard life she must be leading_!’

Aki did not hear these words, and it was likely fortunate that this was the case. It meant that as they insisted she stay the night before taking her leave in the morning she did not simply refuse- instead, after some obvious hesitation, she nodded. They were insistent enough, and it would be rather foolish to throw away the comfort of a futon.

“…Alright,” she decided in the end, her eyes drawn to the small girl again. ‘Suki’ had been watching her every move since coming here, she’d noticed. It was more than off-putting, but in the end?

Somehow, ‘Suki’ reminded her of herself. Seeing things that didn’t exist wasn’t far off from summoning things that didn’t exist right?

Even so, as comfortable as the futon was, her sleep was only barely so. Though she’d drifted off into her slumber with ease Aki found herself snapping her eyes open in the middle of the night for what most would see as ‘no reason at all’, the sharp feeling of pins and needles growing down her spine.

Her simple bag, where the clothes she had worn before practically being forced to accept the loan of a simple nightshirt was snatched up, and the feeling grew.

And as she opened the door she realized why.

“Suki-!”

The little girl had no idea, did she? “Look, it’s the pretty lady!” she told her with a smile, her hand grasped tightly by a woman in tattered robes.

Aki grabbed a card without thought and reacted. “NOT ‘PRETTY’,” she snarled, sending her card hand forward. “AND DEFINITELY NOT A ‘WOMAN’!  _ROSE FLAME!_ ” the woman cried, fires shooting to the end of the hall to throw the ‘woman’ back. Suki screamed in shock but as Aki ran to her it was the ‘woman’ who screeched louder, and as hair burned away to reveal sunken eyes and tusks the size of hands the small girl screamed louder.

‘ _SssrrrRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHH- Mortal you will leave me to my PRIZE!_ ’

“Hnhnhn _nnn_. Not likely! ROSE BLIZZARD-” she shouted, only to be thrown back by a blast of wind herself as the ‘oni’ howled in rage. “Gh-AACK-!”

‘ _HnhnhHEHAHAHA! Foolish woman, believing slips of paper will save you now!’_  The clawed witch snatched the now wailing little girl, and as footsteps sounded down the hall Aki growled. ‘ _This changes nothing!’_

Her arm glowed red with a wretched mark, and as metal clattered to the ground her seal rolled from the waves of power released. The demon’s face fell, and as Aki stood her rage thickened the air itself. “That’s right,” she started darkly, knuckles cracking as another card was pulled into her hand. “ _THIS CHANGES NOTHING AT ALL_!”

“SUKI!” the elders behind her were shouting, the girl reaching out for any that could help. “SUKI!”

“BLACK ROSE DRAGON!” she roared, the monster rising behind her with a screech. “ ** _BLACK ROSE GALE!_** ”

It was child’s play, really. Nothing but an 'old woman', nothing but child’s play.

Half the house was destroyed and behind her the elders trembled with fear. Looking back now ‘Suki’ was still in the grip of the ‘oni’s hand, or at least she was before the remainder of the corpse finally dissolved into dust. And as she stared, the girl began to open her mouth-

“Flow… Ers…”

“Hn.” She grabbed the leg of her dragon, and said nothing as it took off for the skies. Stupid. This was all so stupid, so pointless, and-! Her eyes dimmed, and Aki adjusted her grip on her bag before looking away. “Don’t listen to strangers next time.”

“Ah- Wait!” the old woman shouted from the house, Aki paying it no mind as she fled. The dragon’s power retreated to the card soon enough as it was but even so she continued to run from where she was within the woods, the faint cries of the elders still on her ears.

“ _Wait! Please, let us help!”_

_“At least give us a name!”_

_“Please!”_

Their shouts faded to the back of her mind as she ran. By the time she came to slow herself to a walk, they had vanished entirely, her sandals pulled from her bag and slipped back on along with the rest of her clothes.

The memory of the family in the woods was no longer existent. Not at all.

Yet as she stood in line at the ferry terminal a few hours later, something still nagged at the back of her mind.

And as the small boat took off for the island of Kyushu, she couldn’t help but look back and wonder…

Where would she go next?

 

 

 

 

 

.                              .                       .

 

 

 

 

.               .             .           . 

 

 

 

.       .      .     .     .     .

 

 

 

.   .   .   .   .

 

 

 

.  .  .  .

 

 

. . . .

 

...

 

 

If one asked his age he would ask what age was. If one asked ‘what’ he was, he would wonder why the question existed at all.

His name had no longer been a part of the equation long before, and in the ‘time’ that followed it did not take long before he realized there were gaps in what his memory held. Who was it who had cared for him when he was little more than a child? Who was it that he had played with then, that he apparently fought alongside in battle later on?

What point was there to those battles anyway? What point was there to the blood that was shed, to the burns that were caused, what were these things on their wrists (wrists??) anyway?

For an instant as these questions came a sensation of undying horror arose within him, the emotion encompassing his entire being. He was losing himself, losing himself in here! He was forgetting who he was, who he had been, who he would…

Be…

There was nothing awaiting him now after all, so what was the point. Why had he been filled with such terror in the first place, there had clearly been no reason for it, and it confused him so. All he’d done was work himself up, just like his frien…

His fr…

…His…

His what, exactly? What use were these questions anyway? It was tiring, and around him he felt rumbles of agreement. Tiring, exhausting…

He couldn’t remember what it was that had scared him, and suddenly he couldn’t even remember being scared. He merely drifted further back into the abyss that he was bound within… Sinking…

Falling…

He couldn’t remember…

And around him, he could hear…

… _Rumbling_ …

 

 

 

 

.  .  .  .  .

 

 

.  .  .

 

 

 

. .

 

 

 

 

.

 

 

 

 

~~_-vrrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn-_ ~~


	48. Chapter 48

Getting a letter was the last thing he expected given the relatively close quarters of his personal circle to be honest. It had now been almost six months since the end of the ‘war’, and almost just as long since the construction for Daedalus bridge started. It was shaping up nicely to say the least- it would probably be done within two weeks in fact.

Crow’s letter did not come from Satellite however.

Instead, it came from the address of a small village far north in Hokkaido known as ‘Houra’, and it was after skimming little more than the first few sentences of the already short letter that he bolted for the cafe across the street.

“JACK!” he shouted, his friend just about choking on his coffee. The blond shot him a nasty glare from his cup, and as Crow looked to the drink in question he briefly frowned. “…Are you seriously still buying that stuff.”

“Of course!” came the immediate protest. “It’s Blue Eyes Mountain- no other coffee compares!”

“It’s  _three thousand yen_.”

“And worth every bit of it!”

“EVERYDAY!?”

Jack shrugged. “Sometimes I don’t make it here.”

“It might as well be everyday.”

“Still not  _actually_  everyday.”

“Are you-” He held his head, shaking it. “Right. Whatever. Not the point- Look at this,” he continued, handing the letter to Jack.

“Mn? What is this?”

“It’s important that’s what, just read it!”

His friend snorted, but nonetheless did so.

And as he read, the coffee was slowly put back on the table, the man standing up with widening eyes.

With only two words, he looked back up. “He’s  _alive_?”

“For now,” Crow added almost uneasily.

There was no questioning what the contents of the letter meant, no questioning what needed to be done.

‘ _come now, before he ends himself and the lives of all with him_ ’

Kiryu as it seemed, was alive.

It would be on them then, to make sure he stayed that way, wouldn’t it?

* * *

The road to ‘Houra’ was long, but not so much that they faltered in their resolve. They had left with barely a word of warning; Crow put a sign on his store, told Zora he would be out for a bit, and drove off.

Jack didn’t even hesitate to do that, merely shouting something about a tab when the cafe owner demanded payment and driving away. He’d probably have to deal with a worried call from Carly for it later- but at the moment that wasn’t the problem, and there were bigger things at stake.

There would be toll gates- enough that by the sixth there was already constant argument about who was paying where. And they couldn’t get there in one day, much as they would have wanted to.

But as they left the ferry the number of roads and inhabited areas began to diminish. Skyscapers were replaced by small houses and fences, and eventually even those were replaced by trees and bush. After the fifteenth toll, there were no more tolls to pay. With only the map on their bikes, they pushed forward.

And in the end came to the village built at the very base of the mountain known as ‘Dyne’.

Houra-son was desolate, cold, and in the fall months overall just  _dark,_  even with the sun still shining above the clouds. Its few streets were scattered with small shrubs that had yet to be trampled upon, and the doors of the homes were closed to all around.

This much was obvious as they cut the engines of their bikes in the center of the village.

“OIIIIII!” Jack shouted, stepping off his bike with a frown. If one looked they would notice a slight reddening in his face from the cold around them, shivering more than well hidden despite the obvious disadvantages his typical riding outfit posed. “KIRYU!” he called out, cupping his hands as white vapor followed his voice. “KIRYUUUUU!!”

“OI, Jack!” Crow snapped from the side, adjusting his coat. “He’s not going to listen to anything we say if you just start shouting his name like that!”

“Oh,” he growled back, “And you have a better idea!?”

“Anything would be better than this I’m pretty sure!”

“Please! Don’t fight!” Eh?

The two turned as the sound of an opening door came over the air, a young woman stepping out as she carefully balanced a bouquet of flowers in her arms. The addition of a third presence in the village center at all was enough to jar the two into silence in fact- and as she tossed the bouquet over Crow quite suddenly found himself fumbling to catch it as the woman spoke.

“Really- there is enough fighting in this place,” she scolded, shaking her head. “It’s better to just get along, isn’t it?” she added, her fingers brushing against the flowers in Crow’s arms as the teen coughed and blushed.

“Ahhhh- W-Well, we were just-“

“Who are you?” Jack cut in stiffly, crossing his arms as the woman smiled.

“A friend- come, inside,” she continued, gesturing to the buildings around them. “You might not see anything now- but you’ll find even the earth speaks to those who ask…”

The two boys looked to each other with obvious skepticism at that, as though wondering just what level of sanity this woman had. In the end however, with prior experiences of the dead rising and the theft of the soul, they nodded. With the woman’s guidance the bikes were led to the back of the store, and walking inside they found themselves taking seats among rows and rows of flowers, native grown and immaculately kept.

“I see you got my letter,” she began as her guests looked around the room, grabbing their attention immediately.

“Your letter?” Crow repeated. “So then you’re ‘Barbara’?”

“And you know Kiryu then?” Jack continued, ‘Barbara’ merely nodding.

“To answer the first question, ‘yes’. For your second, I can’t say that I know him personally. He’s a very quiet man,” the woman explained, “And aside from when he comes to fight, he does not speak with anyone.” No one? “You could have called him until your voice shattered- he would not have heard you from where he is.”

“You mean he’s not here after all!?” Jack roared, Barbara not even flinching at the sound.

“Not yet.” At the tone she used with these words they stared, listening as she explained further. “At sunset- that’s when he’ll come down.” Uh.

“Come  _down_?” Crow asked, raising an eyebrow.

Barbara nodded. “Of course- your friend lives up the mountain, not in the village. It’s only at ‘duel time’ that he comes down. It’ll make more sense when you see it,” she added, the words ‘duel time’ eliciting expressions far stronger than mere confusion from the two. “Until then, perhaps I can get your friend a coat."

“Mn?” Jack stiffened. “I don’t need one!”

“It’s the middle of fall- I would imagine it was much warmer in Tokyo.”

“I’m perfectly fine!”

“He’s been like this since we caught the ferry,” Crow muttered, rolling his eyes. “Come on, you’re not even paying for it!”

“I DON’T NEED A COAT!”

“Even if it’s just for disguise?” As the two looked to her quizzically, Barbara explained. “No one’s going to simply ignore the presence of the ‘duel king’,” she warned. “The D-wheel itself was a give away- but the rest of the ensemble?” Jack frowned and Barbara continued still on. “If news gets out that you have come to Houra-son, it will not be taken well.”

“Hm! And if I don’t care?”

Crow elbowed him, and as Jack snarled the rage was cut short. “We’re about to go into a world wide tournament and you don’t think bad publicity might take from that!?”

“AH-” Well.

That was a good point, he supposed. Uh.

He crossed his arms, huffing. “It’s still not because I’m cold.”

“Yea yea, whatever you say,” Crow sighed. “Better give him a hat too.”

“WHAT-“

“For your hair, dumbass!”

“And yours isn’t noticeable either!?”

“I’ll give you that, but since when in the hell have I been on tv as much as you!?”

All in all, by the time the matter of ‘disguise’ and ‘winter wear’ was settled, Barbara would have no trouble in leading them to their vantage point it seemed. Seven PM rolled around and she led them and their bikes up and around one side of the mountain in particular, warning them to hold their tongues and watch. Watch as the sun moved further behind the trees in the clouded sky. Watch as slowly but surely as, to their surprise, crowds began to gather. One side made up of uniformed workmen, scarves around their necks and duel disks on their arms.

The other side made up of ‘civilians’, in both senses. There were no duel disks on their arms, no weapons in their hands. They merely stood with their jackets and gloves and waited.

What they waited for however, was a question that they had yet to answer for.

The sun faded completely behind the trees, and the clouds were dyed a bloody red-violet by the streaking light. What ambient sound had existed before quite suddenly ceased- in its place came a lasting silence that none cared to break, all those within the village merely waiting.

Waiting for someone else to do it for them. For the sound of rattling bones to meet the air, and for the sound of what could be mistaken for the wind to float alongside it.

“What is that?” Crow whispered, frowning as the whistling met his ears. “Some kind of bird?”

“No. It’s a song,” Barbara told them, the two following her gaze to the far size of the village below. “A melody for the ears of the dead and gone.”

“The  _dead_!?” Jack hissed, and in but an instant Barbara’s words became clear. Notes from a song played by a flute of bone sounded clearly through the air, and as the villagers stepped to the side the figure of a man thought twice dead came forward.

As Kiryu stepped from the crowd to enter the village center with the skeletons of animals at his side.

“ _No,_ ” Crow hissed, eyes widening the moment the skeletons appeared. He could see over the more lively of them a film of sorts, almost like a flame. A shadowy wrapping to form the illusion of what it had been in life, a technique Kiryu did not bother to apply to the bear and eagle that were with him. “No, he wouldn’t!” he shouted, Jack as well growling under his breath.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Jack roared, turning on Barbara as the workmen below sent one man forward with his duel disk. “How is he making those  _things_  move?”

“Weren’t you watching?” she asked flatly. “With sound.” The notes of the flute hovered still over the air, and Barbara went on. “Watch- this is ‘Duel Time’. This is what he’s brought this village to.”

If they did not see with their own eyes what happened, they would not have believed it possible. The bone flute was dropped, and the song ended. Instead Kiryu looked toward the man that had been sent forward with dead eyes and reached into his pocket for something else. ‘ _You’re my opponent then?_ ’ he seemed to ask, and as he pulled a deck from his jacket that seemed to be just what the man was. And in the instant that he raised his arm the skeletons of the bear and eagle scattered into the air, moving to cover it in a thick ‘armor’ while similarly scattering to build a field of sorts. From the bones of all but the bear’s skull a mist filled the arena, and with what remained of the skeletons a device formed over Kiryu’s arm. Kiryu did not look away from his opponent whilst he did this either- as though he knew what each bone did without the need for sight, something that should have been entirely impossible.

They could not hear what went on upon the field, but what they saw made it clear. A duel began- from the bones of the bear the power of the dyne in the ground seemed to replace that of the ‘momentum’ typically required alongside it, allowing holographic monsters to rise into the air to clash against the same beasts summoned from his opponent. The duel was short; Kiryu needed only two in order to send his opponent to the ground. And in the moment that the winner was decided he pulled the deck from his ‘duel disk’ and the bones shot back from the ground to follow it. The skeletons reformed, and in silence both the civilians and Kiryu stared at the workman before them.

Another stepped forward to stand beside Kiryu, and with words they could not hear the people took action. The loser was snatched up from the ground, struggles ignored. He was pulled, kicking and screaming into the back of a truck, where he was locked up and driven away.

“Where-” Crow began, only for Barbara to cut his words short.

“He will be taken to the mines,” she explained. “That is what happens to the losers now. Before, these men merely oversaw the work of the mountain. Now they duel for their lives instead.” As the two watched in silence Kiryu seemed almost unaffected by what he did. Entirely apathetic, ignoring even the cheers of the villagers at ‘his side’ of the field.

He merely took up his flute and blew the same tune that he had entered with, the bones at his side clattering in response. He turned and, without a single look back vanished into the woods around them- back toward the trail that would lead him to the mountain top.

Why hadn’t he replaced those cards? Crow thought to himself bitterly. As the people of the village returned to their homes he and Jack did nothing but share a long and grim look, before turning to face Barbara instead. why did he continue to practice that impossible art he’d used to bring Yuusei from the dead, used to damn their friend to three years of hell that had ended just as poorly?

“Do you understand what you need to do?” Barbara had asked them as they returned to her store. Hah!

The answer was obvious, wasn’t it? “Of course!” Jack roared, Crow nodding from beside him. “We need to find him and bring him back!”

“And you think the villagers will appreciate that?”

“The villagers can suck my-!”

“What’s the alternative then?” Crow cut in sharply, Barbara giving a somewhat unsettling smile in response.

“He’ll be fighting again tomorrow evening,” she explained. “And he’ll only fight someone Malcom sends forward for battle. If you defeat him,” Barbara continued, “I can cause a distraction that will allow you to leave safely. But first, you need to find Malcom.”

“And where is Malcom then?” Jack asked, adjusting the cloak he’d borrowed a few hours ago.

 _‘Listen close_ ’ was Barbara’s response- and moments later they would find themselves entering the confines of Malcom’s ‘base’ with ease, proving their worth even easier.

There had been six men to greet them there- six men who went down not with cards but with fists. With six men down Malcom had a rather clear view of what sort of people stood before him- and with cracking knuckles and an almost greedy grin he approached them, chuckling under his breath.

“And just what do a pair of strangers want from the Malcom family then?” he asked, Crow smirking in response.

“We want to fight!” he told the man. “Though we have to warn you- it’ll cost a fair bit to take us on.”

“Hnhneheheheheeeee! If it means getting rid of that ‘demon’?” he laughed, taking the hand and ignoring Crow’s not so hidden grimace at the contact. “You’re both ‘hired’!”

Jack snorted at that, but otherwise didn’t seem to say anything else. Instead, watching as Crow nodded, he turned to leave.

“Alright then,” Crow told the man. “We’ll see you at sunset tomorrow then.”

“That we will!” the man laughed in response. And as the two walked away, his chuckling took a dark and ominous tone. “That we  _will_.”

And on the field at ‘duel time’, they were not alone. “YOU TWO!?” Kiryu exclaimed with an almost alarming level of surprise, Crow and Jack both simply glaring across the field to him.

“Yea,” Crow called back almost bitterly. “‘Us two’!”

“We’re your opponents now Kiryu!” Jack added with a shout. “And nothing you say will convince us otherwise!”

Whether or not Kiryu  _had_  intended to try and convince them otherwise was debatable after Jack said that- however after studying them with wide eyes he quickly steadied his resolve. What happened now could not be changed. If they had truly known what they were doing, then they wouldn’t have done it, right?

If he addressed it now, it would cause more trouble than it was worth.

So in a duel of two-on-one, giving himself a 4000 point advantage for the sake of ‘fairness’, he fought them nonetheless.

He fought- and he lost.

And as the final attack winded him enough to bring him to his knees Jack ran over, Crow coming along with. “Now!” Jack started, grabbing his arm.

‘ _We’re getting you out of here’_.

The sound of an explosion rang through the air, and without warning anything that they could hear was replaced by a steady ‘ringing’ tone. In the dizzy haze it resulted in Kiryu could hear bones falling to the ground and a barking dog fleeing from the area, shouts becoming nothing more than dull noise and a blinding pain erupting at the back of his skull.

 _Ah_ , he thought to himself as he fell forward, eyes closing over all too easily. It seemed that they had hoped to cause a distraction.

Just their luck then, he thought to himself, as Crow shouted only to be shocked into submission and as Jack snarled at the traitorous woman before him only to find himself in a similar state.

Just their luck that they were dealing with Lotten’s lover.

His eyes closed over completely, and his friends soon found themselves doing the same. Their bodies were lifted into the truck, and when the doors closed over the town was left to turn and stare at each side in a state of growing fear on the part of those who had once been victor.

Their ‘hero’ was now as dead as the corpses he dueled with.

And this time, there would be nothing to save them from a similar fate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

.                          .                     .

 

 

 

 

.             _.             .          ._

_.       .      .     .    ._

 

**_.   .   .  .  ._ **

****

****

**_. . ._ **

****

The sound was not always there, but it assuredly was not an occurrence unique to that moment before.

It was a steady, almost pulsing rumbling, like a heart. It gave a humming sound akin to breathing, and as it faded so did it return.  The sound, when it was there, was constant. It was alone, and accompanied by nothing else. It vibrated through the space they inhabited, and filled it with its ‘life’.

Yet there was no way of knowing the identity of this sound, this sound that came from ‘outside’, in the place where such darkness did not exist. There was no way of knowing, not at all, a fact that seemed entirely unavoidable. And yet, that did not stop this thought from coming to mind-

‘If only then, that were not the case.’ That the sound not be unknown, that the sound have a proper place in memory and a form to identify it by.

‘If only then, that sound had a ‘name’.’ Something to call it by, something to know it as.

Something that they, as inhabitants of this vast darkness, had lost long ago.


	49. Chapter 49

In a sense, Crow wasn’t wrong to assume that Kiryu had chosen to die at the end of the war, five months and two weeks ago.

The fact was, he almost had.

His body as it had appeared and been found soon after would likely have expired within the day without medical attention.

Even with such care, it failed to hold. The wailing cry of machines sounded a single tone of futility through the air, and with it those who had cared for the skeletal figure hung their heads. Criminal or no, it was a sorry fate to see- and so Kiryu Kyosuke’s name was written down as the deceased, records purged and destroyed, as a former prisoner became no more than a corpse.

‘ _aaaAAAAaaaaahhh-!_ ’

When without warning, a miracle happened. A shuddering breath came through the air and the ‘dead’ returned to the realm of the living. The dead, whose slate was now wiped clean by a fate impossible to return from, a fate that hung all too close despite recovery.

It was such a key phrase in the situation, ‘recovery’. For recovery from the start could only barely be called this- bringing a ‘skeleton’ to enough health that food would even be accepted by the body, having rejected it so long. Bringing a man to enough strength that sleep did not stretch into the realm of potential death. The road to ‘recovery’ was long and arduous.

However for Kiryu, who had rejected death itself after going so far, it was almost laughable to think of anything but recovery occurring.

At least to anyone other than him.

To be brutally honest, he saw no point in his continued existence, and the congratulations from amazed nurses in regard to his ‘miraculous revival’ only soured his mood further. There were shadowed figures floating in the corners of his eyes and hollow screams in the recesses of his mind, and he wanted nothing more than to bring an end to both.

And when he had seen from the distant end of the hall, seeing the smiles on his old friend’s faces?

He found himself turning with a bitter, largely self-loathing frown, leaving the hall before he could be seen. There was no use in it, he had decided. There was no use in bringing the past back for them, in ruining the smiles on his friend’s faces. They were the ones who had left- they were the ones who had been smart enough to realize what he had twisted into back then, something that it seemed was only now lucidly clear to him.

Despite these thoughts however he could not bring himself to end his life right there. After all in the end news would reveal that he had come back only to die again, and dammit, with all that had happened he didn’t want to do that to them!

Of all the things he could fail at, he couldn’t even  _die_  properly.

So instead, he had simply left. His only clothes were the scrubs from the hospital, his prison wear tattered and ruined in comparison. His only possessions aside from what he wore was a single deck of cards, found in his hands where he had died, and kept for reasons entirely beyond him. Why bother with cards that spoke of such times, why bother with cards that only declared the pointlessness of his existence?

Why, it was for that reason, wasn’t it? The monsters who relied on being entirely alone, a state of being he had left in search of. Without records it was easy to dip under the radar even with the marker on his face. Without records he easily left Neo Domino, travelling as he forced himself to ignore the shadowed blurs in the corner of his eyes.

Eventually this would become far more difficult- shadowed blurs would gain forms, faces, entire bodies and identities. They would appear not only in the corners of his vision but directly before him if they so willed it, and because of this he traveled still onward. He would have no witnesses at his death, he told himself. Neither living nor dead. He had died believing he was alone before.

And he would die alone yet again.

He was not alone in Saitama. Nor was he alone in Gunma, Tochigi, or Fukushima. When he entered Miyagi there were still spirits who remained ever present on whatever path he took, and the same could be said when he left Miyagi to enter Iwate, and when he left Iwate to enter Aomori.

And for a time, even stowing away upon the ferry to Hokkaido did not give him the solitude he desired, his paths taking him still further north as the summer months drew on. By the time he realized he had succeeded in fact, he was hesitant to believe in that fact. Worn and calloused feet carried him through brush and leaves, up rocky trails and old paths that no man dared to take, and by the end?

There was not a single other being present, where he stood on this mountain. Not living, nor even dead.

His travels had come to an end.

He had reached the place where he could die, and not be found. Perhaps later on when he thought back to this moment he would realize the curious paradox that proved- the idea of an area so devoid of life that even the spirits of the earth abandoned it could not at all bode well in the end, and as it was the presence of plants should have proven the theory of spiritual non-existence wrong long before.

Yet there he was, he realized almost in wonder, wandering the mountain in his worn and faded scrubs with wide eyes. Alone.

So then why didn’t he simply jump from the nearest cliff, as he had supposedly planned? Why not simply grab the nearest stone, sharpen it to a point and slit his throat and wrists until he bled out completely?

His questions did not occur to him for a short time. If anything the solitude brought peace, of the sort that he had never once before experienced. Perhaps it was cleansing, in a sense, relieving him of his soul’s worries without his knowledge.

Kiryu did not have time to even begin to ponder such things. For as he wandered the paths of the mountain, panicked shouts pierced the air from far ahead and below.

For as it seemed, he was not at all as alone on the mountain as he thought- and at the base of what he stood on now, at the opposing side to his own, there in fact stood a small mining village that barely existed even on the map.

Following the screams granted him the sight of two men in scarves attacking a far weaker, scruffier looking other. Their shouts were distorted by distance- he couldn’t make out what it was they were saying, and the fact was that if he turned around in that moment he could easily walk away and ignore it.

Yet something triggered in the back of his mind in that moment, bringing memories of life before prison to his mind. Memories of before even ‘Team Satisfaction’ existed, memories of  _why_  it had from the start. They were the only memories that could ever have frozen him in this way.

They were the only ones that could have possibly inspired him to bull-rush the scarfed men from his position above, kicking one in the face before charging the others with fists.

“HRAAAAA _AAAA-AAH_!”

Cracks met the air and the nose of one man shattered but he did not stop there. As he lunged to attack the second though, the first regained his senses with an almost unfair amount of ease.

‘ _You son of a bitch… The hell do you think your game is?!’ ‘THINK YOU CAN TAKE US?!’_

“G-AG-K!”

His body wasn’t strong by any definition at this moment. Walking for a full month’s time eating only what he found, how could he be? He might as well have been a skeleton again in this state. Hell, he was probably lucky to have broken a nose instead of his own fingers when he made that punch.

Yet despite this, as his body scraped across the ground under the force of the others retaliation, he felt an old and burning drive to  _fight_. A feeling that required no further thought, one that worked with muscle memory and nothing more. He pulled himself up in an instant, and threw his arm forward with a fierce cry-!

“RAAAAAAAAAAAHHH-!”

_-ssWWWWWWEEEEETTTTTTTTTTH-!-_

And with his arm came something else.

_“AAAAAaAAAAAAGH-” “WHAT THE HELL-” “MY FACE- MY FUCKING FACE-” “WHAT IS THIS!?”_

Petrified and dried talons scratched the face of the first and in terror the other ran. In the moment Kiryu brought his face back the bird returned, and, freed of the attacker, the workman fled.

For an instant, the man they had heckled before merely looked up with wide eyes, looking to the one who for the moment blocked the sun above them.

And then, he too darted from the scene, leaving Kiryu to stand with the bird on his arm.

Just what was this bird though, he realized with a jolt. He moved to punch, there hadn’t been any…

“N-Nhhh!” The moment he realized what sat on his arm he shook it off, motionless bones clattering to the ground as he hurriedly moved away from them. No, he thought to himself, heart racing not through his earlier battle-rush but instead fear. No, no, no!

He did not bring something back. He didn’t ‘revive’ something, he didn’t-!

It was over, wasn’t it!? That was why they- that was why he was alive again wasn’t it!? This  _necromancy_. It couldn’t be real!

It  _couldn’t._

And yet there was no denying the blood on those claws, blood that wouldn’t have existed otherwise. There was no denying that his strike never connected, that instead something else had sent them away. The fear in the eyes of all three men was more than enough proof. He had wanted to die before? Then this only enforced it, he thought to himself in that instant.

Crow had changed nothing in their duel, in the end. In the end, he was ‘nothing’ now, and had been since his first real death.

Nothing but a ‘demon’ who tore the dead from their rightful resting place.

He’d run from that place. Back along the trail he had taken to reach it, and then with one slight turn up toward the more desolate reaches of it. He ran until he could run no more- though that was hardly much time at all. Fatigued as he was he found himself walking at a deadened pace all too soon enough, left once more with the trees and stones for company.

He couldn’t die here however. Somehow, trying to kill himself here felt wrong, even invasive. As though the mountain itself wanted him and all that was on it gone. So he continued walking. Higher and higher up the mountainside, if at least to let his own fatigue end him as with before. He deserved no better after all. And there were none who deserved as horrific as he. The dead stayed dead, that was how it was- the exceptions were monsters.

Therefore, he was a monster who needed to die.

_-wn- -wn-_

Though he couldn’t help but notice as he walked that the sound of his steps were changing. Perhaps it was the thinner air- perhaps it was merely his mind playing tricks on him. However…

‘ _Raoun! Raon! Aon!!_ ’

Dogs?

In the same instant he turned another bark sounded through the air, the ethereal form of a large and almost bear-like dog wagging its tail before him. “Hn. Stupid,” he decided as he turned back, the barking continuing nonetheless as he walked.

 _‘Aroun-Aof! Raouf!_ ’ As quickly as it had started to fade it grew loud, the spirit bounding ahead to ‘block’ his path. ‘ _RAOUF AOUF!’_

Again Kiryu paused, if only to eye the spirit with clear disdain before walking ahead, the ghost moving aside to ‘allow’ him to pass. Such a stupid, moronic ghost, he thought to himself.

‘ _Raouf! ROUF!’_

Just leave him alone already, he had things to do.

‘ _ROUF ROUF ROUF!_ ’

LEAVE HIM.

‘ _ROUF!!_ ’

 **AUGH**!

It was with growing distaste that he finally stopped to face the beast, the wind blowing harshly around them now that they had exited the areas where the trees tended to grow. What they stood upon now was barren rock, with only a few points of it standing above them. They were literally meters between themselves and the summit- if the dog wouldn’t leave him to die in peace, then perhaps he would just need to deal with whatever had it so determined to follow first.

With that in mind then, he fixed a glare on the dog and sighed. “What do you want?”

‘ _Rouf!_ ’ The dog reacted immediately, spinning once and running off a few steps before bowing down to bark again. ‘ _Rouf-rouf!_ ’ it howled, tail wagging rapidly as Kiryu again groaned.

Of all the ridiculous, most pointless things- He cracked his neck and moved to follow the dog, sighing as the spirit repeated its pattern of bounding away and pausing to check on him. “I’m not going to leave half way,” he grumbled, eyes narrowed in annoyance. “I have more honor than that.”

‘ _ROUuuuUUR!_ ’ The dog gave a strange half-bark in response, almost caught between a howl and something else. ‘ _RouuUUUuuUUrrrr… Rouf!_ ’ The spirit darted off yet again, and Kiryu shook his head, moving the branches of a tree they had come back to in order to duck under. Entirely stupid, he thought to himself yet again.

Stupid!

‘ _Rour! ROUF!_ ’

Yet that did not chance the blank surprise with which he addressed what he saw before him now.

‘ _ROUR ROUR ROUF_!’

A skeleton. “Hn.” He snorted, narrowing his eyes at the bleached bones that lay before him. There was something clenched tight in its teeth despite the elements that had destroyed the rest of the organic matter upon the corpse- something long and thin, potentially a bone in and of itself. Either way it was as sturdy as the rest of the body, and as the spirit snapped at the stick and wagged its tail Kiryu almost scowled.

This was entirely pointless and it would be better for both of them if it ended now. “You’re dead,” he told the dog flatly, the dog looking back up with its never-ceasing ‘grin’.

‘ _Rouf!_ ’

He narrowed his eyes. “Do you understand what that means? You can’t ‘fetch’ any more,” he spat in a low, bitter tone. “You’re  _dead._ ”

‘ _RouuUUuurr?_ ’

“You’re not solid any more. Just ‘move on’.”

‘ _Rrrrr… Rouf! Rouf!! Hff-ff-ff-ff-fff~_ ’

As the dog merely panted cheerily, tail wagging as it attacked the stick again, Kiryu stiffened. “Idiot… You’re DEAD!” he repeated louder, ignoring the strain on his voice. “There’s nothing here for you any more, just leave!”

‘ _Rouf!!_ ’

And yet the dog continued to ‘grin’ and snap at the stick, looking back to Kiryu and resuming its playful stance as it barked.

“Heh.” It was so stupid. Just. So.  _Stupid._  This- “Idiot. You’re such a stupid fucking dog…”

Without giving it much thought he crouched down, putting a hand on the skull before him. “Fine. You want me to commit one more sin before I go to hell?” he ‘laughed’, voice harsh and rasping as the spirit stood back, apparently thinking that the man was intending to toss the stick as he wished. “I’ll give you a way to chase your stupid stick!”

That was what he said.

However as the skeleton shuddered and stood, all that happened was the spirit jumped back, barking in shock before entering a crouch for fear of attack.

The stick was still lodged within the skeleton’s jaws. And the skeleton itself in the meantime merely stood stock still, giving not even the slightest hint of ‘life’ aside from that. As though it were nothing more than a puppet, he found himself wondering- and almost hesitantly, he thought to himself ‘what if I wanted it to move?’

‘ _What if I asked it to move its head?_ ’

The skull shifted and Kiryu jumped, before looking to the still growling spirit. Silently, he placed one hand upon the skull and reached with the other for the ghost, the dog tensing, but nonetheless allowing the touch to come. With both hands placed Kiryu swallowed, looking back to the bones.

If this worked, he could throw the stick and be done with, he told himself, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. What happened after would no longer matter. He would be dead, gone, and no longer disrupting the ‘balance’ of things in this world.

If this only worked-

He opened his eyes and a shot of energy passed through his arm, the one upon the spirit seeming to throw it into the skeleton itself. The energies of the ghost glowed brilliantly for a single instant, and idly he thought he heard the howl of a wolf- and as the glow dimmed, his eyes widened.

“ _RF! Ruuuf rf rF!_ ”

His shock quickly faded as the dog’s muffled barks met the air, stick gripped tight in its jaws. Gaining physical form was not something that apparently registered with the dog- And after a rather lengthy stretch of silence he sighed, grabbing the stick with bony hands and wrenching it with slight difficulty from the playfully expectant dog.

“Alright. You leave me alone after this,” he ‘warned’, spinning the stick in his hand. “Got it?” The dog merely bounced somewhat in its crouch, tail wagging. “Hn.” He pulled his arm back, and with as much strength as possible for him he threw the stick off into the bush. “There! Fetch!” he shouted half bitterly, the dog wasting no time in bounding off after it.

For a few short moments he stood there, silent. As a breeze passed however he turned back to the path, making his way toward the summit once again. Maybe now, he thought, he could just die in peace. The dog could do what it wanted, he told himself. For now-

_“RRF! RF RF!”_

“Ngh-!”

“ _ROUF ROUF_!” There was a tugging at his leg and with a scowl he turned, fixing the skeletal, half flaming dog with a glare. As he did so the dog held the stick back up, wagging its tail yet again.

“Again?”

 _“RRFFFFF!!_ ”

Ugh. So  _stupid_ , he thought to himself with a broken and incredulous smile. This dog was just so unbelievably, horribly-

The bird didn’t do this, he realized abruptly. It didn’t have personality, it didn’t move on its own; when he’d ‘banished’ it in his mind it clattered to pieces even, scattering across the ground.

That was the same with the dog wasn’t it? Until he’d put the spirit in, it did nothing- it was just a puppet, a set of bones that moved only with his thoughts. Nothing more, nothing less.

He didn’t ‘raise’ anything he realized, a cold chill passing through him in a sensation not unlike a wash of water. He  _couldn’t_  raise anything. All he’d done was move bones around and in the case of this dog re-join one and one.

He hadn’t ‘ignored’ Crow, then. And yet, he felt the need to at least test that, he decided as he grabbed the stick that the dog had dropped. If this ‘power’ he’d been left with was something other than the monstrous spit in the face of the one he’d pulled from death for too long, if he was alive and left with that power, what would that mean then?

As he would discover later, there was no life in those eagle bones.

So taking them and the ever clingy dog with him, he vanished up to the mountain top again with an alternate purpose in mind. He’d found his solitude- that was what he wanted, wasn’t it?

In that case he decided, watching the sun rise from his place at the mountain top, why not ‘stay’? The dog certainly wouldn’t let him do otherwise, that much was already clear. Walk too close to the edge and the thing would be bounding in front of him, knocking him down only to start licking his face with a tongue that by all rights shouldn’t have existed. Look at sharp objects the wrong way and it _would_  growl- as though reading his mind, his darkest thoughts, and deciding for itself that to allow such a thing would be entirely unacceptable!

“Hn!” Even tossing the ‘stick’ in that sort of mood wouldn’t work.

So he supposed in the end, it would be better not to bother. Devoid of life as the top was, there was plenty of food to be found near the bottom; the dog was a vicious opponent in a fight, and as summer came to an end it would even drag a bear back to their small ‘base’, much to his surprise. 

Not that he didn’t know how to heat up meat. Bear was… New, of course. But it was meat, and meat was food, he supposed. There was a small ‘cave’ close to the summit that they eventually claimed as theirs, and overall the simplicity of everything was calming he would admit. And in time a stash of bones would grow, same as his ‘puppetry’ techniques, furthered by a somewhat morbid curiosity for the limits of the power. In a sense, he decided in the end, this was ‘Yuusei’s gift’ really. A power that couldn’t bypass the lines that had damned him.

Yet all the same a power that could be used for almost anything. Maybe having the dog just made things easier to justify; a dopey, ‘grinning’ mutt who cared for little more than his life, the stick, and catching ‘things’. Or maybe it was even the fault of the mountain air itself, calming his spirit as he carved away at a bone to create some other object.

Regardless of the reasoning, they were alone. He did not mind that.

If anything, he discovered a number of weeks after he settled in the cave of the mountain summit, he preferred it.

‘Fetch!’ he had shouted as per-usual for the dog, throwing the stick as far as he could. The dog had bolted but instead of returning in an instant he had heard a scream, blood draining from his face in response. There were _people_  on his mountain he realized, not once thinking about how entirely ridiculous the idea of a mountain being ‘his’ was.

There were PEOPLE- 

Children, he would force himself to mentally acknowledge once he reached were the stick had landed.

There were children on the mountain. “Who are you?” he asked with a cold tone, the two children holding each other close as they drew back.

“We- We’re just…”

“Please don’t kill us mister ghost!” the boy exclaimed abruptly, Kiryu finding himself with a look of bewildered annoyance as a result.

“What.”

Their names, as it would turn out, were Nico and West. They had been told by their father to flee for the mountain after their home had been raided by a group of people they called ‘Malcom’s followers’, and additionally warned, as it seemed, to be wary of a ‘spirit dressed in faded white’.

Idly he had thought about how very  _not_  white his clothes were for the moment, but in the end he merely shook it off, snorting. “Fine then,” he had decided. “You can stay up here until the sun goes down then,” he told them. There was really nothing that would have allowed him to say otherwise of course. In a sense, he knew that. However to be honest, the fact that they had taken five minutes to get over the scare of a skeleton moving on its own amused him in a strange sense.

Watching as West eagerly scratched behind its ears, he almost wondered if they could see the ghostly form created around it in fact.

“He’s pretty nice once you get past the bones and stuff~” West had decided, Nico laughing rather awkwardly as the ‘not-spirit’ which was Kiryu merely worked on the finishing touches of his flute. “What’s his name?”

“He doesn’t have one,” he answered automatically, the two turning with wide eyes.

“Ah- You didn’t give him a name?” Nico repeated, the young woman flinching as she received a sharp look for her efforts.

“What part of ‘he doesn’t have one’ didn’t you hear?”

“Ah- W-Well it’s just surprising is all!” West protested. “You’re supposed to give them things like that!”

Kiryu merely stared with the same narrowed glare from prior, and returned to his flute.

“Bah! Fine, if you won’t name him, then I will,” the boy decided, Kiryu again pausing in his work. “‘Pone’ sounds like a good name, don’t you think?” Uh.

“…Pone?”

“It means ‘bones’ in our native language,” Nico explained, West merely rubbing the newly dubbed ‘pone’s ears with a grin.

“That’s great isn’t it? ‘Pone’, ‘Pone’~”

“ _Rouf! ROUF!_ ”

Hahaha. ‘Bones’. How fitting.

Admittedly the name would grow on him in the end, but at the time he had simply made the last ‘stroke’ on his flute and given it a low blow to test the reed, standing from his spot to look over at the sky.

“You should probably go back now,” he decided, the sky slowly bleeding a brilliant red-gold as the sun dipped toward the horizon. “It should be fine now,” he continued almost apathetically.

“Um-“

“Okay,” Nico answered with a short bow. “…Thank you for having us,” she added somewhat hesitantly, Kiryu merely snorting in response.

“Just leave.”

“R-Right,” the younger of the siblings laughed uneasily. “Bye Pone!” he added with more enthusiasm  the dog giving a cheery bark in response as the two began their trek back home. “Bye Kiryu-nii!”

“Mn?!” Kiryu- _nii_!?

He chose to banish it from mind at the time, though ‘the time’ did not last long. Within the hour the children had returned, and though his first instinct was to shout for them to leave like he’d asked, somehow he felt a pit grow in his stomach instead.

A pit that brought with it the question of why these children had been warned of a ‘ghost’. Only three people had seen him after all, and he would hardly expect the physical description to last so long. Assuming that ‘Malcom’s followers’ were the men in scarves, and looking at the children’s faces now?

They took after their father, it seemed.

Except now, it wasn’t likely that they would see that for themselves.

‘ _Dad’s gone,_ ’ they’d said through their tears when they came back, Kiryu watching as the two trembled. ‘T _hey took him, he’s gone.’_

Perhaps it was ‘fate’ in a sense, his coming here.

His power filled the skeleton of the bear he’d finally managed to clear of flesh and sinew, and he turned to look at the children with an expression of determination quite unlike any he’d adopted prior.

Perhaps it was ‘fate’, that he came here with this power.

The bones rattled behind him and as he asked for them to show him the ones who had taken their father they briefly stood, petrified, before swallowing their terror and motioning for him to follow.

And as he followed, those of the village would look upon the ‘spirit’ that the foolish children had convinced to their side and board themselves behind locked doors. The air would clear and as bar doors slammed open those within would turn to face what could well have been death itself- garbed in tattered white that was stained with the elements, by a figure who carried with him the bones of many.

“I’m here for the one who took the man named ‘Sergio’.”

The men had stared with terrified eyes but somehow one managed to speak up in ‘defense’. “Looking for a fight stranger?” they’d asked with a harsh grin. “We only duel here, didn’t you know?” There were a few well hidden chuckles at that, and the man pulled out a deck to ‘prove’ his defense. “Go home ‘stranger’,” he laughed. “Man of the mountain like you wouldn’t have cards.”

His response froze their laughter on the note. “How fortunate then,” he responded coolly, pulling his deck from his pocket. “ _I seem to have found some._ ”

“I- Impossi…”

“You win, and you can do what you want with me,” he had told them, the wind seeming to howl as the energy of the coming fight rose through the air. “If I win, you take their father’s place.”

Aah, they had protested, but that was impossible!

Such was a fact that the children would be unable to avoid.

So then, ‘ _If I win, you **join**  him.’_

The air chilled further but despite this the duel had begun. And just as soon as it started, as soon as the crowds began to gather in morbid curiosity, the sun setting down below the horizon, it had ended. Darkness came. For a moment, the defeated stood trembling.

And finally a man stepped forward from the scarf-less people at the sides. “Well?” he ‘asked’, eyes narrowed. “You’ve lost haven’t you?  _So get on with your deal_!”

“Hah- No, no I-” The man trembled, but he could not fight the eyes of the village and the eventual turn from his fellows. “NO!” he screamed, kicking at the ground as he was dragged away, pulling from the arms of the others. “NO!!”

It was over then.

Kiryu turned to leave from whence he came, but to his surprise he was faced by another. “It won’t last you know,” the man from before warned him. “They’ll go back to their electric collars once they realize this was a one time thing.”

He could have continued walking if not for those words- So instead he paused from where he’d already passed the man, looking back from the corner of his eye.

“You just gave these people a hope-spot,” the man continued with an eerie smile. “Do you really intend to tear it from them?”

“Why should I care?”

“Because if you don’t, then maybe there really is nothing for us but death, ‘spirit’.”

Kiryu stiffened, eyes widening. It almost felt like a low blow using those words, after all he’d driven himself toward before finally coming here. The idea of an entire village facing death instead now, as opposed to he who deserved it so much  _more_ , well.

It was unacceptable. Entirely unacceptable- he didn’t even know what was going on, not completely, and yet he knew his answer to this man’s request.

“You’ve given us a chance to _fight back_ ,” the man continued, half repeating himself when Kiryu remained silent. “Why not see that chance through?” The silence remained- however as Kiryu turned, the smile became somewhat warmer.

And as he walked back into the village, skeletons following, it seemed the place regained a little of its life.

“Come along, I’ll explain the details of our sorry situation,” the man told him. “I’ll get you some decent pants while we’re at it too.”

He snorted at that- but somehow, he found himself smiling at that. Perhaps he wasn’t so hopeless as he thought.

Perhaps…

 

. . . .

 

 

_.  .  .  .   .   ._

_.   .   .   .   .   .    ._

_.     .     ._ **_.      .       ._ **

****

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****

**_.         .          .           .            ._ **

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**_.            .                  .                     ._ **

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The sound would vanish occasionally. It would fade out and simply not return, leaving silence and mutterings among beasts. Such was expected, admittedly.

The sound would always return in the end.

When it did it filled the darkness with a strange sort of ‘light’ that none could see, the humming almost bringing invigoration with it, if one dared to call it that.

It was such a comforting sound- there was nothing quite like it. Such a warm, close sound, nameless just like all that was in this place. Yet the sound could leave if it wanted, not like all others in the darkness. It could leave and travel as it wished, before coming back as it willed.

It was never late, the sound. The sound which granted peaceful sleeping, calming thoughts and a tie to the place that was ‘out there’.

One could almost be… Jealous of it, even. Of the power the sound brought, of the mysteries behind it. What _was_  that sound?  _Where_  did it go, where did it come from?

There was no answer to that question.

In the end however, it would have been oh-so nice to _have_ , wouldn’t it?


	50. Chapter 50

His head was pounding when he awoke, but he supposed it could have been far, far worse.

“ _Ugh._ ” It felt as though a million jack-hammers were going on in his skull, but  _really_ , it could have been worse.

“Ow…” “Where…”

They could have just been dead.

By the time Jack and Crow had come to, Kiryu had been awake for a number of minutes already. Even with consciousness however, visibility was at its minimum. Whatever they were sitting on was soft at least, but he didn’t want to think about  _why_  it was soft, and so for the moment he merely took in the fact that they had apparently been tossed into a pit to die.

He’d rather not think about what it meant if they figured they  _were_  dead.

As it was, the other two soon gained enough senses to realize they were no longer in the village, and as he turned to the sounds of their voices he snorted. “So. You’ve finally woken up then,” he started almost sarcastically, the other two immediately turning on him.

“Kiryu!” Crow shouted, Jack interrupting.

“Oii! What the hell happened back there? We were supposed to save-“

“Save me?” Kiryu asked, cutting his friend short. He gave a bitter laugh, and not long after it devolved into a groan. “From what?” he shouted to them. “A village?”

“Hey, you’re the one who was raising the dead!” Crow protested angrily. “Didn’t you learn anything from last time? Did you even  _THINK_  about that duel?” he added louder, stiffening when dry and harsh laughter was again his response.

Oh. Ohhhhh of course. They had to have watched from somewhere right? “The closest thing to raising the dead that I’ve done since that day,” he growled, “IS MAKE PUPPETS OUT OF FUCKING BONES, YOU IDIOTS!” Shocked into silence by the outburst he continued, ignoring the bizarre sounds from below as he stepped forward. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? ANY idea what’s been happening in this village!? THOSE  _PEOPLE_  were no better off than Satellite to Neo Domino, and I couldn’t stand by and watch. You should be happy I settled for so much as a duel,” he spat. “Not that it matters any more.”

“And you expect us to believe that!?”

“We’re in a pit, and we’re not getting out,” Kiryu retorted bitterly. “Why don’t you tell me?”

They fell quite silent in response to that, the two trading uneasy looks in response. He had a point- the fact that they’d been played for fools as more than obvious. All the same however, that did  _not_  change what they’d seen.

“So what’s with the skeletons then?” Crow asked darkly. “How’d you find out about that anyways?”

_‘Such a thing…’_

_‘It’s all **instinct**  isn’t it?’_

As additional voices met the air the two stiffened, Kiryu merely widening his eyes as the dimly glowing figures of deceased miners floated to the air. They had all died in despairing condition, that was obvious. They looked emaciated, half starved for the most part, and anyone else seemed to have expired from overexposure to the minerals around them.

Or in the case of a few facing them now, he realized, from something even less natural.

“HIHHHHHH-!” Crow fell back, Jack as well giving a shout as he backed from the ghosts. “What the hell-!?”

“This is worse than when my  _parents_  appeared-“

Wh- “What.”

The two turned, and Jack seemed to almost unconsciously mutter something about ‘opening the blinds’ while at the hospital, eyes still trained on the ghosts before them. “They showed up, said something about how they’d wanted me to hear their voice and then they flew away! I only got to see them for three minutes!!” Well, admittedly he probably hadn’t been able to see them until after the ‘war’ was over, but.

Uh.

“What.”

“Why are you even here?!” Jack questioned angrily, the other two pulling themselves from their confused stares in order to look to the spirits that were actually present.

The bruises of those up front were ugly and black in hue, contrasting the pale-visage their translucent forms presented. Some had gashes on their face or arms, defensive wounds that did nothing to alleviate the pain. And about each of their necks was what resembled a burn, Kiryu grimacing as he recalled the description of Malcom’s ‘shock collars’.

“Oh,” he observed almost dully, the grimace becoming a fair bit more noticeable in the light the spirits gave off. “You’re the ones Malcom’s workmen killed. Likely after I started the duels,” he added slowly, Crow and Jack both paling.

The spirits however, did not seem to mind. ‘ _Some of us,_ ’ the one at the front observed. ‘ _But most of us were thrown here after expiring from exhaustion._ ’

At that the majority of the three tensed, gears turning in their minds to process those words. “Thrown-?” As Crow choked on his words the three looked down, nausea barely held back as they looked to what was now visible in the dull light.

‘ _You’ll join us soon enough,_ ’ the spirits told them as the living three looked over the many corpses below. Some were fresh and barely rotted, others rendered almost bone dry; they all bore the same uniform however, and the mark left behind when the collar had been removed. ‘ _Maybe not soon,_ ’ the spirits acknowledged, not caring for anything else as it seemed. ‘ _But in the end you will._ ’

Corpses.

Their fall to death had been cushioned not only by their then slumber but by  _corpses_  they realized, and yet as Jack and Crow looked to their friend they realized that his expression was not at all the same as theirs.

In fact, his face seemed to slowly grow into a smirk, leading them to realize the same thing that Kiryu had thought of just now.

“Oi- Kiryu!” Crow protested, only for his words to be cut short by Kiryu’s own.

“What if I gave you the chance to fight back instead of waiting for us to die?”

Jack as well opened his mouth to protest, shouting even as the ghosts seemed to consider the offer. “Kiryu- What do you think you’re doing?!” he roared. “Yuusei wasn’t enough, so now you’ll doom them too!?”

He stopped his protests only with the look he received for his efforts, Kiryu’s face twisted into a vicious snarl. “Don’t you DARE compare that to this!” he spat, looking back to the ghosts. “I won’t bind your souls to your bodies anyways- you wouldn’t be able to move on if I did that,” he added grimly, the ghosts seeming to nod in agreement. “However. If I lead your corpses out from here, not only can you get your vengeance,” Kiryu continued, “But I can give you the burial you deserve.”

His words hung on the air, Jack and Crow looking to the spirits as they chattered among themselves. A proper burial would mean ‘peace’ for them- a ‘life’ in the beyond, a freedom from the realm where they could no longer exist entirely.

With that in mind there was only one answer then. ‘ _We accept._ ’

The only warning the other had was the expression on Kiryu’s face as he cracked his knuckles and brought one hand up- after that, a rumble passed through the air and events passed in an instant.

From beneath them the bodies began to move, cracking and shifting, rotted flesh falling where it could as they rose up from the ground. They moved, like a wave, constantly climbing, pushing upward as Crow and Jack were caught in the rush- they both could do nothing but shout in surprise as this occurred, and whilst the bodies rose upward they found themselves unceremoniously dumped upon the cliffs far above, tunnels leading out from it.

Groaning, both attempted to stand, only to pause as Kiryu held one out for them both. Behind him stood the army of dead, stock still and awaiting command. As for Kiryu, he gave a small smile.

“Well? What are you waiting for?” he asked with a smirk. “Have you forgotten how to fight?”

“Hah! As if!” Crow snorted. “An army of dead isn’t exactly something I’m used to!”

“This is disgusting…”

“Are you fighting or not,” Kiryu questioned dryly, both his friends responding with smirks.

“Well, why the hell wouldn’t we?” the shorter of them decided.

“I owe that ‘witch’ a fist to the face,” Jack growled in agreement, all too bitterly recalling the shock that had knocked them out.

Good.

With nothing else to decided or say, Kiryu did nothing but nod and grab from around his neck the flute that had somehow survived their fall to the pit. “Then let’s fight,” he started with a turn. The flute came to his lips and from it a familiar, hollow tune entered the air-

And as they walked, so did the army behind them. As they left the tunnels so came the screams from below, as the visage of those long gone came into being. Those with weapons fired upon them, but the gunfire was to be blocked by strengthened bone. And once close enough those who fired were met with fists and shouts and swift kicks to the ground.

The march went on and as they proceeded the people fled for their homes, boarding their doors and leaving those outside to fend for themselves.

The dead did not have as much ‘mercy’ as their commander. They broke through doors and took any with the trademark scarf of their murderers and while they did not kill it was likely their presence alone could cause such a thing. The dead had no care for what happened to those around them, and as they passed through the village it slowly became engulfed in a sea of corpses.

The dead had no purpose in life.

Which was why their final purpose would need to be fulfilled before there could be peace. As they came to the center of the village however, it appeared they came to a standstill- to one side, an army of ‘zombies’, tied to the will of one.

And to the other, those who had yet to flee or be captured- or rather, ‘one’. Malcom and his brother both had easily been taken by the hands of the unfaltering dead.

This one however, did not appear so easily phased.

“Barbara,” Jack growled, fists clenched as he stepped forward.

“You remembered my name, I’m flattered,” she responded with a sneer, a dark chuckle rising from the back of her throat. “End of the line boys,” the woman continued sharply. “This is as far as you go.”

They had to snort at that. “Is it?” Kiryu questioned darkly. “It looks to me like it’s over for you! There’s no point in resisting now- … _Ah._ ”

Their words died on their lips with the snap of Barbara’s fingers, flowers scattering from her hands in that instant. And quite suddenly the sound of the explosion that had sounded through the air before their last capture appeared in an alternate manner, dust clouding in the air to billow around beasts that had not existed seconds before.

Demons. That was the first word that came to mind for them, though the ‘demons’ before them were strange demons indeed. They were monsters worthy of Aki Izayoi’s flora deck, and yet bore vicious claws and poisoned fangs. Resembling twisted figures of the flowers Barbara so cared for the two creatures growled lowly, and their snarls froze the others in their tracks.

“Now so confident against ‘real’ power, now are you?” Barbara taunted, her hands held in a sort of ‘seal’ position. “Your army will be useless once I order an ATTA-  _gl-K_!”

A loud ‘thud’ resounded, and as the woman fell forward with a similar noise the monsters vanished. Gripping a shovel with white-knuckled hands their ‘savior’ swallowed, trembling on the spot.

“C- Carly!?” Jack exclaimed, eyes wide as the woman dropped the shovel in fear.

“I- I didn’t kill her right?!” she asked, looking to them with wide eyes. “I just saw those things, s-so I…”

The three traded looks with one another, and in the end looked back. To be perfectly honest?

It probably didn’t matter either way.

And as the ‘war’ that had both ‘sides’ of the village at each other’s throats came to an end, an odd sort of calm settled. The corpses were piled in the center village, a funerary pyre of immense proportions built with the aid of the villagers; and as the fires reached their peak height to burn all within, the sun arose to bring streaks of warm gold to the clouds above.

It was over now, that much was clear.

Yet as he turned, it seemed the others had yet to leave. “You’re still here,” he observed almost idly, eyes on the funerary pyre.

Crow for his part merely shrugged, Jack and Carly coming over from where they’d recovered the D-Wheels. Carly’s reaction to his presence had been unexpected, to say the least- she’d paid him nearly no mind, hardly an issue yes.

However coming to him now, the first thing out of her mouth was “Ah! I remember you!”

“Mn?” As Kiryu frowned, the woman laughed rather uneasily.

“Erm- I can’t remember much from ‘that time’ you see,” she admitted with a swallow. “Actually, from the point I died…”

Kiryu nodded somewhat knowingly, and changed the topic. “I’m surprised you haven’t left yet,” he told them. “The village’s funeral is hardly your business.”

“Of course it’s not,” Jack answered with a shrug. “But that doesn’t mean you’re not!” Mn?

As he looked to them with a frown, the others grinned. “You didn’t think we’d just leave after finding you did yah?” Crow laughed, only for Kiryu’s response to wipe the grin from his face.

“No.”

“Ah- WHAT?” Crow shouted, Jack bearing a similar action as Carly stared.

“What do you mean ‘no’!?” he questioned angrily. “We came here to bring you back!”

Kiryu merely shrugged, and as he did so the sounds of footsteps and clattering bones came by. “Kiryu-nii!” came West’s familiar shout, the boy pulling behind him a large wagon, his sister helping with the weight of the bear skeleton upon it. “Kiryu-nii!” he called again, Pone barking and running along with them. “Don’t forget these!”

“It’d be bad if you forgot Pone, right?” Nico added with a smile, only to blink as Kiryu scowled in response.

“I’ve already said- I’m not going anywhere.”

“Ah, but Kiryu!” Jack protested, Crow looking from Kiryu to the kids with almost suspicious silence as their friend continued.

“You two don’t have anyone now, right?” Kiryu asked, realization dawning on the others. As the children shared awkward looks, he nodded. “Then it’s settled. I’m staying.”

The kids stared; and Crow, finding himself smiling despite the morose air around them, spoke. “Why not just bring them with you then?” he asked, Kiryu looking to him with an expression that quite clearly said ‘are you insane?’

Crow however merely looked back with a quiet and strangely severe gaze himself, the fires of the funeral pyre burning behind him and the sounds of the mourning yet celebratory village dying out behind him.

Ah, he realized, closing his eyes to nod.

That was why he asked.

And that was why in the end the children would pack what few belongings they had and leave their ransacked home to find Kiryu using the bones that he’d gathered over time to create something for them to follow after his friends in. It was why they would store their luggage under the protective leg bones of some large animal, Pone himself even becoming a part of the ‘d-wheel’ that would take them away from the frigid north.

They would drive with little breaks, but they would drive over the ‘long route’ this time, if at least to spare each other of the toll that would be required. They would drive, and as they came to the road which overlooked Neo Domino find themselves stopping at the lookout to stare in wonder.

“Woww,” Nico gasped, eyes wide as they stared out to the waters between Satellite and Neo Domino. “What  _is_  that?”

“It’s huge!” West laughed. “I’ve never seen anything like it!”

It took a few moments to answer the children. However when Crow did, he didn’t even try to hide the awe and amazement that was in his voice.

“Daedalus Bridge,” he finally told them with an almost breathless voice. “The connector between Satellite and Neo Domino.” It was complete- open to the public with D-Wheels and city traffic alike passing over it from either direction. In and out of a place that had once been entirely closed off from the world in fact.

Perhaps it was fate. That what he had left behind was no longer what it had ever been. That what lay before him now would never be as it was before. Perhaps it was fate.

However, Kiryu decided, he found himself wanting to see what fate had in store for him this time.

…

 

. . . .

 

 

_.  .  .  .  ._

_.   .   .   .   ._

**_.    .      .      .      ._ **

****

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**_.        .          .           ._ **

****

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**_.                   .                   ._ **

****

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**_.                        .                     ._ **

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**_.                               .                      ._ **

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It was always there, the sound. Even when it wasn’t (even then, even when there wasn’t a single sound to hear in this place, even when all of them were silent).

There was always ‘the sound’. It came when it was meant to come, and left similarly. And when it left, there was nothing more than the void that waited hungrily for it to return.

The sound was  _everything_  after all. Warmth, ‘light’. The sound was a connection to other places, places none below could access but OH!  _If it were **possible**!_

The sound was  _his_.

He craved it- he  _WANTED_  it! He wanted to know what it was, to hold it, to possess it!

And it was only his, he decided from the depths of the pit, his snarls reverberating about the chambers. And as he did so the fellow gods chuckled almost in amusement, watching the giant’s host crumble further. This sound he heard, this sound he  _felt,_  this thing that rumbled and disturbed his very existence, it would be HIS AND HIS ALONE!

And he knew it was there, oh how he  _knew_ , even when it wasn’t it always was after all, merely waiting, ever watching in silence, it was his it was his it was his and it was there the sound the glorious sound the sound was HIS, but he couldn’t reach it from here he wanted it so bad it was right there let him out (he wanted it so) let him out (GIVE IT TO HIM) let him out LET HIM OUT _ **LETHIMOUT**_!!

 

 

.

 

   

.  

 

 

.

 

 

 

~~_itwashis……………….._ ~~


	51. Chapter 51

If there had been anything they expected upon coming back, it was not this.

When they initially arrived it had become astonishingly clear that Kiryu was in a little more of a bind than simply the fact that he had been given a longer sentence in prison than he’d actually filled- in fact when they attempted to find a way to clear that in less than legal ways (or at least Crow attempted, while Kiryu grumbled about how it would probably have been better for him to simply finish it), well.

“Kiryu,” Crow managed to tell him the same day they started the search, having fallen uncharacteristically silent after cutting their argument on the search efforts short. “Your record doesn’t even _exist_.”

“What?!” He’d jumped up from the couch in shock, and Crow continued.

Not only did he not have a record, but the only thing he _could_  find listed him as  _dead_. Hardly a useful listing for when the time came to get a job.

“And you ARE getting a job right?” Crow had asked dryly from his seat at that, the response being nothing but a frown. Of course he was, he was looking after two kids!

Not that he would have responded with that a few years back, but all the same. Times changed- pick-pocketing and hiding out wouldn’t work here, and thinking back probably wouldn’t be a good idea as it was. 

He was just fortunate that the twins had offered him and the others a stay in their home really- as generous as Crow and Martha were, neither had the room, and the latter probably would have barred him from seeing them as much as possible. Nothing against him, Crow had hurriedly added when he explained that part- but the fact was, he had been the one to put Jack through a ringer and he had been the one of the Dark Signers whose name had been known to her. Thankfully, while news of that war had come to light, the names of the Dark Signers had not; which would at least mean that while he and the kids settled in, he could work on re-establishing an ‘identity’.

That, however, would take a number of  _weeks_  as they would discover soon enough. Something that would cause a fair number of problems in the future.

It only took a few days for the police to show up- though admittedly, he had not been the target of their efforts.

It was Mikage who brought the officer in, apparently to ask Crow and Jack for aid; in extremely recent days a rogue duelist with an unlisted D-Wheel had been causing havoc, sending at least one victim per evening to the hospital with near-fatal injuries. For a brief moment, it had seemed that Kiryu would have been arrested again.

However the twins were more than quick to offer their alibi for his whereabouts, and with all the others adding in their support the attempt was dropped.

Of course, with that, how could they have expected them to help? Even Carly became as stone despite her typical nature, a set frown on her face as she shook her head and refused.

And so the officer ‘Ushio Testu’ went after the criminal they called ‘Ghost’ on his own instead.

In the process becoming the next victim.

But they could hardly blame themselves right? Kiryu had little concern for a man he so briefly met, and frankly he had not known the others to be the same. Perhaps he hadn’t known them long enough.

Or perhaps things had simply changed. However as he watched them wordlessly stare at the clock to wait for evening to come around he found himself grudgingly gathering the bones he was more often than not using for transport now in order to follow along. Carly would not join them- thanks to Jack’s apparently continual request for her to move in with him she’d exhausted herself moving belongings from one place to the next, and according to Jack himself had fallen asleep not long after collapsing on the bed earlier that afternoon. And of course, the kids would not be there as well; for the moment their caretaker for the evening was Pone, if only to make sure nothing tried to break in.

Engines had started and bones had rattled, and three bikes of different forms had taken off.

Only one had found the target however, as Kiryu discovered when Jack called him through the small radio Crow had lent him.

As Crow himself would find, the ‘Ghost’ was more fearsome than they could ever have guessed. With a steel behemoth forged of five monsters, the bane of any synchro’s existence. It was something he would discover when he summoned a dragon that brought dark memories from the back of his mind, the great and shimmering ‘Stardust Dragon’ roaring as it took to the field. It hadn’t been his only option of course. Crow had another level eight synchro as it seemed, one that suited the deck far more.

Perhaps he had simply felt that Stardust was meant for this battle. Perhaps it was for the best even- if it had been any other, summoning ‘Savior Star Dragon’ wouldn’t have been possible in the end, and so defeating ‘Wisel’ and reclaiming the monster would never have happened.

That didn’t change the fact that he’d almost lost it though.

Which was why he found himself looking to Crow with an expression of absolute fury, his temper already pressed beyond typical limits by the reveal that their ‘opponent’ had been nothing more than a soulless metal _thing_.

Crow held to him a single card, a single, dangerously familiar card. He held it forward with a completely serious expression and waited for his friend to take it. “I’m not meant to wield this card,” he told him stiffly. “That duel was proof of that. I’ve got some ideas to get around it,” Crow continued. “But Stardust was never meant to be mine.”

“And you think he’s meant to be ‘mine’ then!?” he snarled in response, fists clenched tight. 

“Yes.” The bluntness of his response briefly caught Kiryu off guard, and so Crow continued. “Because this card was Yuusei’s. And Yuusei wanted me to help  _you_  with this card. And that’s what I’m doing now,” he continued, moving the card closer. “I’m giving you what he wanted you to take.”

The light shone off Stardust’s surface almost as brilliantly as it would on the dragon itself, he idly noted at the time. It glistened and gleamed, and with trembling fingers he found himself clutching it soon after Crow’s words. It was a beautiful dragon really- nothing like the monsters of his deck, nothing like _anything_ in his deck.

Yet somehow even with that, he found himself agree with Crow’s words, if at least in silence.


	52. Chapter 52

In the days that followed the ‘Ghost’ incident, other problems would rear their head in ways that were far less obvious at first glance. It was expected of course, that getting ID of some sort would be fraught with difficulties- there were no remaining records in history for him aside from a death certificate after all.

However Kiryu’s more than unwanted difficulties in successfully doing so anyways would not be the only problem.

It had been an entirely innocent idea after all. Kiryu had decided if he was looking after two he’d look after the two others lending him a room after all, and if there was going to be anyone checking in on them, the twins decided they liked this option better than the one their parents sent to be honest. Rua hadn’t been quite on board to  _start_  of course- such was the issue of moving skeletons and the like- but with how swiftly Ruka began gushing over the dog (and the bear for that matter), his mind would quickly be changed.

Now if only it was so easy to deal with their parents.

Nico and West had been, at that moment, with Kiryu; he was not the only one who needed ID, and while he thankfully had the assistance of the others in dealing with the lack thereof on the part of their now parental guardian, that didn’t change the fact that they’d need more than what they had in Houra-son. So, the twins had decided, why not use that opportunity to discretely make the swap of employ?

Discrete as it was, their parents were quick to notice, and the twins found themselves silently thanking the fact that Nico and West were both busy outside with the dog while Kiryu was again off somewhere waiting in line to deal with registration when the call came in.

‘ _Kids, what’s this record about replacing the housekeeper?_ ’

“We got a new one!” Rua cheerfully ‘explained’, Ruka closing her mouth to send a light glare to her brother. “He’s a lot better than the last one!”

“Rua…”

“Eheheee!”

Their parents were not so easily amused. ‘ _Rua!’_  they scolded, not at all holding faith in the mood he was in. ‘ _Perhaps we would have been alright with it if you asked us first, WITH your ‘replacement’ here- but you’ve replaced your housekeeper with a dead man!_ ’

“AH- But he’s not dead!” he quickly protested. “He’s alive! Really!”

‘ _That’s not what these records say,’_  they responded.

“Are you sure you’re looking at the right records?” he offered with a shrug, only to flinch under the glare from the video screen.

‘ _That’s it,_ ’ their father decided, shaking his head with a sigh. ‘ _We’re coming home to check in on you._ ’

“AAAAAH-!”

As Ruka stared at the screen the video feed cut, and slowly the twins turned to each other.

“Oh noooooooo,” Rua moaned, holding his head. “I MADE IT WORSE!”

“Eh?” Their recent housemates looked around the side of the porch door, blinking. “Made what worse, Rua?”

“Ah, nothing!” he quickly answered, his sister merely sighing in response. In the end, they had no way of knowing  _when_  their parents would arrive after all.

Perhaps if they were lucky Kiryu would have his ID by then.

Or, well.

Not.


	53. Chapter 53

Kiryu didn’t have his ID by the time Rua and Ruka’s parents arrived.

In fact, while the twins were uneasily awaiting a call from their parents to say that they had ‘arrived’, he was sitting in a crowd, holding a small numbered slip of paper, and glaring at the lit number being displayed above.

‘Now Serving ‘5’

His paper said 30.

“ _Ugh_.”

Perhaps if it had just been that, he would have calmed down. If it had just been that, and the rest of the ID shenaniganry had been easily dealt with, he would have been in a decent enough mood after the fact but no!

The woman who had finally gotten to his number gave his marker a pointed look, and he already felt ready to skewer everyone in the room with their own bones really.

“So. ‘Kiryu Kyosuke’,” she ‘asked’, Kiryu in question giving a slight twitch. The woman looked up from the papers she had near the screen. “It says here you died in April.”

“Obviously if I’m sitting here,” he growled testily in response, “THEN NO. I  _didn’t_.”

“Doesn’t change the paperwork hun.” Another twitch. “I’ll have to send a call in, I’ll be right back.” And another twitch.

The woman left her seat, and from where he sat he could see her almost casually pick up a phone, pressing a key and leaning back to wait. A few moments passed and the woman seemed to lean back against the wall, starting to talk-

“ _Ughhhh…_ ”

Casually talk. Extremely casual.

Yet again the urge to simply say ‘screw it’ and let loose the bird skeleton that was stowed away in his jacket sleeve was suppressed and in the back of his mind he forced himself to think about how much of a relief it would all be whence this was over.

It was probably a testament to his lack of belief in ‘karma’ that what happened when he got 'home' happened then, in the end.


	54. Chapter 54

When Rua and Ruka’s parents arrived, things were not quite as they expected. Even for the ‘worst case’ scenario.

The first sign that things were likely amiss had been what they saw upon exiting the elevator entry, having punched in the code and come inside with ease. Lying sprawled out over the ground, seeming to even _twitch_  occasionally, had been a skeleton.

Mind, it was a dog’s skeleton but even so. They’d uneasily traded glances, almost attempting to even justify it with the possibility that perhaps, for some reason, their children were studying anatomy?

The skeleton moved.

It raised its head, turned toward them and- “ _ROUF! Rouf rouf rouf_!!”

“AaaA _AAAAAAAHH_ -!”

“SHOOT, they’re here!” came a shout from the living area, and as the dog bounded away the parents could only barely form coherent thoughts on the matter.

The skeleton. Moved.  _On it’s own_.

 **HOW** -

This did not improve when they met the children who had apparently been staying with their own, both of whom looked as though they were ready for late December despite it only being October. Initially of course, there had been the question of why there were other children  _there_ \- and according to their daughter, Kiryu had brought them with upon his return from ‘up north’.

“Ahhhh,” the father decided with a ‘knowing’ tone. “So you’ve just not bought cooler clothes yet.”

“You must be from very far north in Hokkaido to be dressed like this though,” the mother noted. “Just where did you live until now?”

“Ah, Houra-son.” Nico swiftly told them, the smile on her face telling both adults present that the children had apparently not paid much attention to headlines in the world news  _at all_.

Houra-son had recently made waves with reports of the mine shutting down due to mass exodus and workmen’s strike, along with a now open-shut investigation into the unfair treatment of workers and villagers.

Something that had been apparent when they discovered how many bodies were being burned for burial in one day (though some of the less sane of the ones that fled claimed the same bodies had been ATTACKING).

Yet despite this both parents managed to hold their tongue, mentally reminding themselves of why they were there. Thinking of moving corpses wasn’t something they were very want to do at the moment, particularly since their daughter was calmly scratching non-existent ears on the skeleton dog while the eldest of the children present stood from the couch.

“If you like, I could show you where West and I have been sleeping?” she offered nervously, West in question merely grinning. “We’ve been very grateful for the help Rua and Ruka have given us, and we’ve tried not to impose in any way.”

The parents found themselves briefly surprised to be honest- what a polite girl!

Sadly their relief quickly faded as they were led upstairs, an idle ‘that’s Kiryu-niisan’s room, please don’t open the door’ leading, of course, to the father doing just that.

“We won’t touch anything,” he had assured them as he opened it, “But as the owners of this home, we do have the right to know what- H-HHAAAAAAAHHH!!”

“ANOTHER SKELETON!?” the twins’ mother screeched, Nico frantically attempting to calm them down.

“Ah! Please, Kiryu-niisan keeps most of his bones in his room, it’s not a problem!”

“Honey, what if this one moves too,” the mother hissed to her husband, West quite unfortunately misunderstanding the comment.

“Of course it moves! All of them move!” he laughed, and from in front of him Nico grimaced.

From the looks of the parent’s faces, they had made their decision, and a few moments later she and her brother were uncomfortably sitting with the dog in the hall as the twins (though more clearly, Rua) argued with their parents.

“The answer is ‘no’!” their father shouted. “Absolutely ‘not’!”

“But why?!” Rua protested. “He’s been taking good care of us!”

“And so was the woman we hired to check in on you!” their mother responded. “The moment that man comes in, we’re calling the police!”

“What!?” That one had  _everyone_  on their feet. “But you can’t!” Rua protested, the crowd now entirely unaware of the droning sound of a suddenly active elevator. “You can’t do that!”

“We can and we will!” they answered, Ruka shaking her head as she as well protested.

“Please, he’s not what you think!” she cried. “Don’t do this!”

“Please don’t!”

“Don’t do it!”

“We want to stay here!!” West added in, the dog growling and barking at the parents as the air became more and more agitated.

It was to this that the elevator doors would open, shouts continuing on regardless. It was the sight of shouting and/or weeping children and two enraged looking adults that Kiryu would be greeted with once the elevator doors opened, and it was such a sight to which he reacted in an instant.

“ _YOU GET AWAY FROM THESE KIDS RIGHT NOW_!” he roared, and as the sound of clattering bones sounded from up the stairs the parents found themselves turning with wide eyes. The bones of the bear they had come upon earlier seemed to fly down the hall to pin them to the ground, and, apparently taking that as his own cue, the dog did the same. “WHO ARE YOU?” Kiryu snarled, the children briefly frozen in shock and fear both as the parents trembled from beneath the skeletons. “What do you want with them!?”

“Ah- K-Kiryu-niisan?” Nico managed to ask, a sharp ‘what?’ coming her way as the man held his grip and focus on the two.

“What is it?”

She swallowed. “You… Might want to move the bones from Rua and Ruka’s parents now.”

Kiryu’s reaction was likely the only sane one any person in his position would make to be honest, given the fact that he was currently using a bear to pin two panicked adults who had likely never seen a fight. The bones of one clattered to the ground, and as another ‘cue’, Pone backed away, his owner snapping his eyes to the kids in shock.

“Parents?”

Any explanation was cut short as West coughed from beside the two. “Ummm… I think we should call an ambulance!” What? “Cause they aren’t really moving…” What?!

“Mom, dad?” Ruka asked uneasily.

“Hey! Are you alright?” her brother shouted, both seeming to do little more than tremble and shudder from where they lay on the ground.

“B- Bear,” the father managed to squeak, the others falling awkwardly silent as Nico darted off to call for an ambulance.

How much more damage would it do, Kiryu almost found himself wondering, if he vanished on the spot right that instant?


	55. Chapter 55

Oh  _this_  was awkward.

After the parents had been taken in for the shock (and potential heart attack), he’d gotten rather tense to say the least. Having the children explain why things had escalated to the point that they had before he arrived didn’t help matters in fact, and it was a  testament to just how damn uneasy he was when coming into the hospital room that there wasn’t so much as a mouse-skull somewhere on his person.

Hopefully the parents didn’t take it too badly that they’d been attacked by a skeleton that despite being nothing but bones, had somehow breathed overly rancid and hot air over their faces and felt more like flesh and fur.

Personally he didn’t have too many hopes, and while apologizing was hardly his area,  _this_  was a situation he could not ignore.

“I am…  _Very_  sorry for attacking you,” he managed to force out, finding it all too difficult to actually look the two in the eye. “But I thought you had broken in,” Kiryu half grumbled, almost wishing that had actually been the case.

“Broken in? To the _tops_?!” the father protested, only to flinch as Kiryu instinctively fixed him with a glare. As the expression fell however the parents both snorted, the mother shaking her head.

“Well. At least we know they’ll be safe,” she decided, Kiryu turning to her in surprise.

“I-” Wh- “What.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” her husband questioned, the woman merely shrugging.

“Well, a full-sized bear and akita, that’s hard to top wouldn’t you say.”

“You mean you’re going to let him-“

As Kiryu continued to stare in shock, the mother nodded. “He bothered to come in and apologize didn’t he?”

That was true, the father supposed. “Hn, at this point he’d have gained more by fleeing I guess-“

“Fleeing!?” Kiryu questioned fiercely, hurriedly calming lest the situation degrade once again.

“We’ll have to wait until he has identification, that’s all,” the mother decided, continuing on as though the subject of the conversation wasn’t even there. She then turned. “You don’t mind being paid under the table until then right?”

To say that ‘everything went better than expected’ that day would have been putting it incredibly mildly to say the least of things, he would decide later on.

On the bright side however, it meant he could get the kids some decent clothes though.


	56. Chapter 56

There were few words to describe the situation Kiryu awkwardly found himself in, but the few that he voiced probably worked just fine.

“What.”

By the time November had started, the matter of ‘proper identification’ had finally been solved, along with a few other issues that came and went. For one, most of Japan had a law concerning schooling and people under 15; namely that ‘they had to go’. For obvious reasons the law hadn’t kicked in when he was growing up- Satellite might as well have not even  _been_  part of Japan at the time.

That wasn’t the case now though, and if he wanted to avoid  _more_  trouble then he was going to have to enroll Nico and West in middle and elementary school respectively. Initially Kiryu had simply looked for the nearest school as a result, but to his almost torn surprise, Rua and Ruka had actually jumped on that as soon as the two had records to apply that law to; which was why by the time he’d even  _found_  a possible school, all four of them were walking into the penthouse in uniforms.

‘ _A **private school**?_ ’ he had questioned almost blankly, West looking all too pleased about his own uniform.

The twins had merely explained that their parents generously saw no harm in giving them a boost in education while they were ‘getting on their feet’. Kiryu personally wondered how they weren’t on their feet  _already_ , given that they were already at least five times better off than most of Satellite had been under a year ago, but in the end chose not to turn down the help. Hell, West was ecstatic about attending a _duel_  school, rattling endlessly whenever he got home from classes about how cool all the cards they got to work with were, and how he ‘couldn’t decide’ on any favorites, and so on, so on.

Nico herself was doing fairly well despite just starting out, though she would only shyly admit as much when asked about it directly. Otherwise, she seemed to put most of her focus in the academic studies of the class, ironically becoming one of the few who actually didn’t  _need_  the incentive of dueling as the building had been created to provide.

After all, if students were encouraged to keep up with  _all_  their studies while practicing the game, then perhaps the low education rate for duelists would vanish right? (He didn’t really get it, but at the same time he didn’t feel like asking either to be honest.)

Apparently that didn’t matter to all of the instructors at the building however, and after getting a note from one of West’s teachers concerning ‘poor dueling’ he found himself narrowing his eyes.

What the hell did low level monsters have to do with this, he wanted to growl in the boy’s defense, combine a few good cards and a level two swarm could destroy a match in one move.

Which apparently just  _didn’t register_  to this particular instructor. Nor did the whole idea of  _learning_  to duel properly rather than being good at it right off the bat. Hell! Even Rua and Ruka came in with notes, despite one making it to the finals of a tournament and the other actually having a medical reason to avoid dueling entirely.

Which was why he was here.

Staring at this idiot of a teacher as he prattled on about low levels of dueling and homework not getting turned in and- while he  _did_  have a point with the latter, did that  _really_  call for a suspension?

Seemed more like that would cause a  _bigger_  problem to be honest, and more importantly, the case of the students on the expulsion list for ‘poor dueling’.

“You realize that one of them has a  _medical reason_  not to duel right?” he asked with a clearly grated tone, fingers idly tapping where he had his eagle bones stashed away.

“Well, I suppose that I can take  _her_  off the list,” Heitmann grumbled in response, as though realizing what sort of hole he’d be in if he said otherwise. “Though I fail to see the point in sending a child who can’t duel to a dueling academy.” Maybe because they still had the better quality of academics? (Apparently?) “However there is no excuse for the others! This is a dueling academy and the best in Japan at that! We have no reason to pander to such base strategies as these!”

A raised eyebrow at that. “‘Base’ strategies?”

“Morphtronics, Flamvells, Batterymen- Useless!” Ahah.

“You do realize one of those was used in the  _finals_  of the last major tournament, right?” he asked in response, almost wondering if he wasn’t simply being messed around with for some distraction or joke.

Apparently not. Apparently this man really  _was_  that STUPID. “Well, I wouldn’t expect a Satellite to understand,” Heitmann all too casually ‘admitted’, “Given the quality of car- GhAH-!” Quite suddenly the desk Heitmann sat at bore a few dents in it, a few bits of eagle bone poking out around Kiryu’s fist to pound the wood.

“ _Care to repeat that_?” he growled, the man very wisely shaking his head. “You’re a very  _lucky_  man,” he continued dangerously. “If this was a year ago, I’d have probably snapped your neck for those words,” Kiryu hissed, quite unconcerned about how those words could potentially be turned against him. “But you happen to be standing between  _my kids_  and something they enjoy, despite YOU spitting all over it with your idiocy!”

Heitmann swallowed uneasily, and Kiryu continued further. “I use monsters who rely on an empty hand to duel. What would  _you_  call that? Go on. Answer honestly,” he added with a cold glare. “I won’t do anything.”

The man snorted. “I call it idiocy!” Heitmann sneered. “Relying on something so transient? You’d never win!”

“Care to  _test_  that theory?”

Heitmann grinned quite maliciously in response to that, very obviously not understanding what was in store for him.

Regardless of what the teacher had expected however, the ending was the same; the infernity monsters destroyed Heitmann’s ‘gear golems’ with ease, and if at least to save face the expulsion notices were revoked. The kids fell back into their routine of classes, and he himself into the routine of working with his bones and keeping to the standards of his apparent job.

All in all, a lot of quiet to ‘deal with’ once the matter was settled.

He’d eventually come to regret thinking of it like that.


	57. Chapter 57

When Ruka and Rua told them that their parents had enrolled them at their school, she wasn’t sure what to think.

The uniform was extremely different from her usual clothes- it felt like she was wearing paper-thin cloth in comparison to her usual outfit, and while it wasn’t  _uncomfortable_  that didn’t change just how odd it felt.

West certainly enjoyed his uniform. Though the prospect of sitting in a classroom all day didn’t seem to endear him much, he was at least excited to try the dueling part.

So the uniforms were slipped on, and come Monday, after explaining things to an almost amusingly shocked Kiryu, they were off.

And-

To be honest she hadn’t expected to see this many people, ahahahaha!

Nico swallowed as she stood before those who would be her classmates, bowing lightly before speaking. “My name is K-Kiryu Nico,” she began, gauging the reaction from the class with incredible unease. “I moved here from Hokkaido, and I’m pleased to meet you!”

“Why are you so dark if you’re from Hokkaido?” came the first of the questions, Nico already flushing somewhat with embarassment.

“Ah- I-It’s genetic-“

“Hokkaido’s nothing but trees isn’t it, aren’t there bears there?”

“Er, a few-“

“I heard everyone in Hokkaido works on farms all day, did you work on a farm!?”

She blinked. “Actually, it was a mine-“

She had been about to say that her parents worked in the mines, but apparently her classmates took the phrase entirely differently, and as the teacher had cut her short to start class she couldn’t correct them before the rumors spread.

In one way, she didn’t mind. She wasn’t trying to talk to any of them really, and as long as she had her brother and the others, it was alright wasn’t it? She focused on her studies and quickly rose to the top, regardless of the mutterings of ‘the miner girl’ floating around behind her.

On the other, she desperately wished that someone would look to her with an honest smile instead.

With West, it was different. He’d introduced himself, and when asked about Hokkaido by his classmates at lunch he had exploded into conversation about ghosts and zombies and moving skeletons, and immediately everyone had laughed about how ‘that’s impossible, ghosts don’t exist!’

West’s response had been that Hokkaido was a ‘different sort of place’, which had him soon enough becoming the person who was asked about ghosts maybe  _too_  much, as while he gladly gave his two cents on something it was swiftly discovered that his actual knowledge on the matter was small; soon turning interest into sarcastic remarks when he tried to help anyways.

West was lucky though. West had Rua, and Ruka, who were close enough to his age that playing with them and their friends during break wasn’t odd at all. So he managed to ignore the remarks, pulling only the good.

Perhaps they could make it then? she’d thought when she realized that. Perhaps things wouldn’t be so bad?

The expulsion notice had come, and for a short time her hopes were dashed completely. That wouldn’t actually happen would it? Her brother, the twins, all their friends, being expelled?

It couldn’t possibly happen right?

It was with momentary confusion that she turned as one of the girls from her class called her name, suspicion written clearly over her face. ‘ _nico you have to see this!_ ’ they were laughing, ‘ _heitmann finally got someone pissed enough to duel him!’_

She’d wondered why they’d bother telling her that really. Surely all the other times someone had been dueling someone or other hadn’t been important enough so why now?

Why?

Because it was Kiryu fighting, that was why.

“Hey Niiiico, isn’t that your dad?”

“Erm. Sort of,” she quietly responded. Saying ‘parental guardian’ would probably make things even worse, she’d decided sometime ago.

The duel began, and those watching gaped. Even the set-up was a sight to behold, bones appearing seemingly from nowhere to build Kiryu’s ‘eagle bone duel disk’. 

And that was nothing compared to the actual duel. To West and Nico it was just Kiryu.

To everyone else, watching Heitmann get slammed down by the infernity and brought to defeat was a thing that had never happened in all their time at the Duel Academy however.

Suddenly, the mutterings changed. Suddenly, there were no more ‘miner girl’ comments, or snips to her brother about how he didn’t know anything. Instead in fact, her brother was eagerly going on and on with his new friends about Pone, about moving bears, skeleton D-Wheels, and about anything else he could ever recall Kiryu doing. Suddenly things had changed entirely.

And suddenly?

Nico groaned internally as she listened to the girls around her gush about Kiryu’s hair and jacket and over all ‘badass’ery again, eyes looking over to the clock on the wall.

Suddenly, she really just wanted to go back to the miner girl comments, to be honest.


	58. Chapter 58

“ _Ow_.”

His first thought upon waking up was ‘where was he?’ His second, not quite as important thought was ‘why is it night time already’, but this was quickly tossed aside again for ‘where the hell was he’ once he realized that whatever he was lying on was  _moving_.

Crow stood, rubbing his head and looking around in the darkness as he waited for his vision to adjust. It looked like a truck trailer to be honest. Hell, after a few moments of blinking in the darkness, he was more confused than he started, because wonders upon wonders, _it really was a truck trailer_. His bike was there (albeit chained to the ground), his tools were gone-

Oh yea he’d been doing a house call hadn’t he?

And then there’d been a shout. And he’d cautiously tapped the guy on the ground that he found, and-

“That-!” Quite suddenly he realized how he got there. “Bastards!” he snarled, kicking the back of the truck. “HEY WHO’S OUT THERE!” he roared. “What the hell’s your game?!”

Quite suddenly a tv-screen clicked on, and Crow hissed, ducking behind his arm in the face of the strong and sudden light.

  
 _‘I see you’ve awoken,_ ’ a man congratulated over the feed, Crow merely scowling. ‘ _Feeling alright?’_

“Yea I’m feeling great!” he snapped. “My head’s pounding and I’ve been kidnapped!” DICK.

‘ _Please, you should be honored!_ ’ the man chuckled. ‘ _I am the head of a renowned tour-riding league after all; to be chosen by us despite never even partaking in a tournament provides an incredible opportunity for you!_ ’

“And why should I believe that?” he grumbled.

‘ _You attracted our attention through the ‘Dark Signer’ battle, ‘Crow Hogan’, don’t take that attention lightly_ ,’ they warned. ‘ _We seek to fill the final position of a team under our sponsorship, and what with the ‘Duel King’ being otherwise busy… Well, we decided offering you the chance to transfer would be better._ ’

“You mean ‘obvious’,” he snapped back, the man on the screen frowning. “Hah! I’ve met five year olds who lie better than you! You just didn’t go after Jack because the press would snap it up within five minutes. Hell!” Crow spat, “He’s dating a  _reporter_!”

And it seemed he’d hit it right on the head, if the livid expression on the man’s face was clear.

Not that this was stopping Crow. “And besides that, he wouldn’t have agreed to a switch to your team anyways; we don’t just turn on each other like that!”

‘ _So you think_.’

Oh? “And what the hell do you mean by that?”

‘ _I mean that regardless of your opinion, we **will**  find a way to make you fill this spot; you have Stardust Dragon. Therefore,_’ he continued, ‘ _You WILL join!_ ’

The screen blinked out before Crow could even protest. “What- OIIII!” he shouted, pounding the screen with a fist. “I don’t even have that card any more you idiots!! OI!!”

The pounding echoed through the air, and yet despite the sound went entirely unnoticed.

In the end, he was left to collapse to the floor and lean back against the truck wall, scowling.

“Dammit!” he hissed, narrowing his eyes. How the hell was he going to get out of this one… An attempt to turn on his D-Wheel to at least send out a call resulted in a fizzle and a crack and a rage induced attack on the screen on the wall again. Any attempt to break down the door didn’t work at all, same with the chains bolting his bike down, and in the end he was stuck lying back against the truck wall yet again. Damn.

Damn!

“Tch.”

What a fine mess he’d gotten himself into.


	59. Chapter 59

They really weren’t sure what to make of the call to be honest. The idea of Crow of all people getting kidnapped was frankly ridiculous after all, and with the number of housecalls he did, there was no real way of knowing if he was ‘missing’ or not until evening.

Yet despite this, the one who called to say he  _had_  been kidnapped seemed entirely serious, saying something about being targeted for Stardust and being ‘on the fly’.

“On the fly?” Carly had repeated confusedly, tilting her head. To be honest, most of them didn’t actually think anything had really happened, but with the amount of prompting Carly made in response it wound up being ‘either try to find him or get nothing done for the next number of hours  _anyway_.’

Which was why they had taken off in an almost triangle formation, two on D-Wheels, one on a pile of bones made to look like one. Driving the D-Wheel made of bones made for an interesting bypass of the D-Wheel law actually- as it wasn’t  _actually_  a D-Wheel, and even lacked an engine, he  _technically_  didn’t need a licence for it.

Mind, he got one anyway lest they try and confiscate the bones for some other ridiculous reason, but even so. The clattering of bones was ever present as he drove, and it was a sound that almost comfortingly replaced that of an engine hum.

At least until it had been joined by the sound of banging metal from the truck beside him. The truck which, as he noticed with further study,  _didn’t actually have a driver_.

And that was exactly why his next move involved scaring the utter shit out of Crow.

“ **HOLY** -” It had started with a few thumping sounds, nothing much. Something landed upon the roof of the truck, and began pounding on it.

And then the bear’s claws had torn through it by the combined strength of every  _other_  bone Kiryu had at his disposal, leaving Crow to stare up in shocked incredulity.

The metal was torn away, and suddenly Crow managed to find his voice again. “You- I’m not one for subtlety myself, but don’t you think maybe that’s a  _little_  over the top!?” he shouted up, narrowly avoiding any of the scrap that was falling from above. “Wouldn’t just taking control of the truck have worked just as well?!”

Kiryu merely fixed him a look from above, shrugging. “There’s no one driving; I don’t have the same advantages.”

“AND?!”

“And we’d probably end up falling off a cliff,” he finished casually, hopping down to the still moving truck in order to set the skeletons to work on the chains.

Crow snorted, grabbing his helmet as the bike was free. “YEA,” he laughed dryly, “Because ripping open the truck wouldn’t have tipped them off!”

A smirk. “Hn! Wouldn’t you have picked that option if either one worked just as well?”

Kiryu’s response was an oddly nasty grin, which conveyed the message all to well. And as Crow slammed his helmet back on his head and got ready to ride the skeletons launched themselves forward at the doors of the truck, twisted metal flying down the edges of the road to be followed by two bikes.

…Make that _three_. The roaring of a second engine came over the air and as the two looked back a white and almost equine d-wheel came up beside them. For a moment, there was only silence, the rider clicking something from the handles and looking to them almost expectantly.

Rather awkwardly enough, this silence persisted when nothing actually happened.

“Nh-” The third rider seemed to stiffen in shock as Kiryu rose an eyebrow, trading an almost bewildered look with Crow. “Why isn’t your D-Wheel responding?!” the rider finally protested, Kiryu snapping his attention back with an expression of mild amusement toward the remark.

“Hn!” This explained the movement on the bike at least. “Trying to start a duel then?” he half taunted, Crow raising an arm from the other side of him. 

“Hey if it’s a duel you want-” he started, only to cut himself short; to their slight surprise the visor and grating on the duelist’s helmet pulled back for the duelist to turn and face them, and at the sight of what was clearly a woman and not a man as expected, he choked. “I…” He flushed, string. “I-If you want to duel,” he repeated, face reddening as he grinned, “Then hey! I’m game-“

“How are you not on the grid?” the woman interrupted, Kiryu merely smirking in response.

“If you haven’t noticed,” he calmly replied, “This isn’t a ‘d-wheel’.”

From the look in the duelist’s eyes it was clear that she had indeed realized that- and yet she seemed strangely un-phased, instead looking back to Kiryu as they entered a tunnel. “So it seems,” she acknowledged. “Heh. How interesting!”

“Really now?” he ‘asked’, watching as the woman’s smirk grew.

“Listen close- my name is Sherry LeBlanc,” she started seriously, looking to them with narrowed eyes. “And I’ve come for a duelist bearing one card and one in particular,” the woman went on, Crow stiffening.

“One- You’re with the same guys who stuffed me in that truck!” he snarled, eyes wide. “You’re after Stardust!”

“What-!” At those words Kiryu turned to look back only for a sound from the front to catch their attention. Screeching metal filled the air, tumbling over the side of the tunnel they were to exit; and with little time to react Kiryu stood, jumping forward from the d-wheel to meet with the ordinarily devastating threat with an expression of near impassivity. “Tch!” A twitching hand was all it took. The bones snapped forward and half crushed the truck in their grasp, throwing it to the side of the road where it ‘harmlessly’ crashed to the ground. One more twitch and the bones returned, forming the D-Wheel he landed upon as he drove out of the tunnel and pulled himself to a stop, Crow joining him.

And a number of meters away, Sherry did the same.

“What do you want with Stardust,” he growled, Sherry seeming strangely unaffected by the sight of the necromantic techniques.

“Whoever has Stardust bears its power,” she responded simply. “If you have that card, it’s proof that you’re a more than formidable duelist. Don’t misunderstand though,” she continued with a frown. “This ‘kidnapping’ wasn’t of my design; if it was, I wouldn’t target the  _former_  owner, would I?” she added, Crow merely looking back with a continued frown.

“So that’s it then?” Kiryu stated, his tone clearly revealing his apathy toward the topic. “You wanted a powerful duelist for your third slot?”

“Maybe. I have my reasons,” Sherry ‘explained’, saying little more than that. “Are you competing?” she asked, the man across from her snorting.

“Hn! The tournament doesn’t interest me,” he told her honestly. “I have better things to do.”

A smile was his response, albeit a somewhat tight one. “I see. Well then!” she shouted back, starting up her D-Wheel once again. “That’s a shame! You’d better not get in my way then,” the woman warned, her helmet closing over again. “I won’t hesitate to take action if you do.”

Sherry’s words were responded with nothing but narrow eyed glares as the woman drove away, leaving the other two to stand in silence. Just what Sherry’s goals were, they had no real way of knowing.

After those events however, it was probably not surprising that Kiryu spent a bit of time going through the cards of his deck when he next had the chance.

Just in case, he told himself.

 _Just in case_.


	60. Chapter 60

When the date for the opening ceremonies of the WRGP finally came out, Kiryu had paid it little mind. It was Christmas season, in a place were people actually cared, and overall he had better things to do than bother with going to parties he had no reason to attend.

And yet there he was, arms crossed and jacket closed as the kids were allowed in for the ‘party’.

At least he wasn’t ‘alone’. “Sir, I can’t let you bring pets in here-” the doorman started, only to stop as he looked at the other end of the least Kiryu had. “AH…”

“If it’s allergies you’re worried about,” he casually stated with a barely hidden smirk, “It’s fine; Pone doesn’t have hair.” Or flesh. Or Organs. Or anything other than bones really.

The doorman merely choked somewhat, and nodded. “R-Right this way sir!” Ahhhhh that was fun. That was definitely fun.

That was probably about the best part of this ‘party’ really, not that the others would say the same.

“Oi, Jack!” Crow hissed to his friend, the taller of them looking considerably more like he belonged there. “That’s team Unicorn right?” he asked, as though to double check.

Jack looked up briefly from where he’d been starting to fill a plate from the buffet, glancing over the team in question- riding suits were there, same as team logos, though their faces gave them away from the start.

He nodded, apparently not nearly as interested as Crow was. “Yes.”

“Eh, Team Unicorn is here?” Carly asked, looking up from her own plate.

“Yea,” Crow answered with a nod, “They’re right over- Oh fuck they’re coming this way-!” he hissed, fumbling somewhat with the plate that was in his hands as Carly herself did similar.

“E-EHHH!?”

What a strange event it was indeed, if Jack was the only one not speaking loudly- though if one looked a few moments later and spotted Carly’s reddening face it would become fairly apparent that any awkward divides had been smoothed over quick enough. As it turned out, Team Unicorn was quite fond of the live-blogging duels Carly had finally created a website for; in fact, it was quite likely that they were the reason she was getting so much attention on it now, something that was likely giving her more of an income than her actual job as a reporter.

Elsewhere in the party, the kids as well were having their own fun- with the eccentricities of the Neo Domino culture, anything could pass as ‘normal’ as it turned out, and with Pone initially mistaken for an automaton the brighter of the children were very quick to take advantage of it. West very narrowly was kept from proving otherwise when Nico showed him the ice-cream bar. It was very likely that they (or at least Kiryu) would regret it later, but at the moment the others decided, it was the lesser of two evils.

Though the whole ‘skeletal automaton’ thing was getting a bit old after the fiftieth person came by.

“What an incredible creation!” they were complimented more than once, various party goers soon getting over the shock of the skeleton when the dog itself proved endearing. “Not quite my taste,” a woman added with a slight laugh, “But a wonderful construct!”

“Ahahaha! T-Thanks?” Rua responded with an almost pained laugh, Ruka merely scratching the dog’s ears in the meantime.

“ _ **Rrrr… ROUF! Rouf**_!!” With the dog’s barks the passing party-goers smiled and laughed, Pone’s tail wagging rapidly as he looked to all those who were there. All in all, it seemed about everyone was having fun in one way or another at the event- food, conversation, even just news of what was yet to come kept them all distracted.

All but Kiryu, as it seemed. The man sighed and discretely made his way out from the tower room, hands in his pockets as he took to the stairs toward the parking lot. He wouldn’t be leaving obviously- not when he’d brought four children plus a dog in. However quite frankly even just standing in the crowd was beginning to grate at his nerves; he needed some space, and the parking lot would be fine.

That was what he’d thought at least.

It was to his immense surprise that this wasn’t the case- though it was likely a testament to his self control that he hadn’t tried to rectify that fact. Instead he calmly faced the one standing just in front of his ‘bike’ of bones with a stern glare, fingers twitching as the vehicle seemed to growl at the stranger.

“Who are you?” he demanded to know, eyes narrowing sharply.

For his part, the man in the visor reacted quite minimally despite the fact that a ‘D-Wheel’ with no discernible engine was actually growling at him through a remarkably massive skull upon the front. Instead he turned to face Kiryu with an unreadable stare, altering his stance but slightly.

“Think of me as someone you need to defeat,” the man responded, light obscuring the eyes behind the visor. “Unless of course, you’d rather wait for the ‘end’ that’s yet to come.”

It had been a testament to his abilities before that he reigned his anger in, to say the least.

Now, however?

Only the fact that he wanted more of an explanation on this ‘end’ kept him from setting the ‘bike’ upon this man right now.


	61. Dark Glass

His purpose had changed.

When Z-One had sent him through time he had given him one task and only one- further the development of Fudou Yuusei’s power. He had been warned that it could be some time before Yuusei appeared- more-so before the opportune moment arrived. However in the end, he was assured, he would come.

Fudou Yuusei could not come to Neo Domino if he was dead.

This changed things. This changed everything. Z-One would be sending cards through time and space itself to reach their proper holders, and only them; Wisel had already been delivered in fact, with Skiel and Granel likely on its way. If the dragon Yuusei was meant to wield did not appear it could be the end of all; the three that were Aporia would not be able to create enough power on their own for Z-One’s arrival.

Thus, he would need to target whoever inherited the card.

He didn’t know if it would work of course; the card was pinned for Yuusei and Yuusei alone, it was entirely possible that their meddling in time had damned everyone further than they already were without their involvement.

However he had to try. There was no way to contact Z-One to warn him of what had occurred. There was no way to reverse what they had done thus far. They could only move forward.

Though, staring at the large pile of bones taking the parking-space of the garage, he found himself wondering if he would even be able to duel. At first glance, a highly decorative device, something he hadn’t actually expected of ‘Kiryu Kyosuke’ given what records he had of the man. Even stranger were the large sidecars- two, in fact- which were affixed at opposing sides of the bike.

Looking closer from where he stood however had him confused and even shocked. Obviously he had to have driven it there- hell, he’d seen Kiryu drive the bike before, albeit from a distance.

And yet this device did not have so much as an  _engine_  let alone the components required to make it a D-Wheel. It was exactly as it appeared, a pile of bones held together by pressure that should have been impossible to achieve.

He forced himself to continue despite this however. Kiryu appeared. Kiryu demanded his identity- and so in a sense, he gave it. He was someone Kiryu would have to defeat, truly defeat, in order to prevent ‘the end’. It wasn’t an end that would happen in his lifetime of course- that was quite impossible. But it was an ‘end’ nonetheless, something which Z-One would prevent.

Thus he was not lying, and of that he could easily assure himself.

What he could not assure himself of was the source of the growling beside him. It should have been impossible for a pile of bones to growl- entirely impossible, there were no vocal chords, no muscles to even move the device. Then again the device as a whole was impossible, yet all the same.

He’d turned on his heel and moved toward his D-Wheel, giving one last challenging glance to his now opponent. “Follow me if you want answers,” he told Kiryu plainly, Kiryu in question seeming to barely be containing a growing rage. “This duel will reveal them.”

Kiryu did nothing but nod and move toward his D-Wheel in response to that- and in a few moments, they were off. The bikes tore from the garage lot, onto the roads, and soon enough to a riding lane as the signal to duel was created by the Delta Eagle. For a brief moment however he wondered how the duel could be initiated; Kiryu’s D-Wheel was nothing but bone, it lacked an engine, a computer, and even a disk.

Yet the field arose, and somehow Kiryu prepared for the duel without any difficulties at all.

He even managed to out-pace him to the corner for the right to take the first turn.

And he had such potential! Antinomy lamented in his mind, taking his own as Kiryu finished, taking his brief leap through time with Accel Synchro and waiting to see what his opponent made of it. Such power, such ability!

His opponent summoned Stardust, and in an instant he knew his hopes had been dashed. The dragon was his, but at the same time it was anything but. Even achieving ‘Clear Mind’ would not change this; the energy Kiryu created with his very soul would not resonate with the dragon.

It would not be enough to unlock the card that Z-One had sent.

It would be obvious to Kiryu that he’d thrown the duel of course- switching the target of attack to himself rather than the monster, ending it all in an instant. And as Kiryu looked to him with a mix of confusion and anger, Antinomy merely shook his head.

“As you are now you will never achieve what’s needed to prevent your world’s end!” he shouted to him, eyes well hidden by the visor. He said nothing more to him after that. Not even as Kiryu shouted after him, demanding explanation as the Delta Eagle tore off. There was nothing more to say.

Their only hope now, as it seemed, was for it to become possible to raise the dead.


	62. Chapter 62

While those who Kiryu had left at the party were initially panicking as Pone tore for the balcony, Kiryu himself was busy seething in rage. While Pone barked cheerily as he looked over the balcony ledge, a large number of the party goers filing out to look toward the duel that was on in the distance, Kiryu triggered the same energy he always used to power the bones and formed himself a duel disk.

Back at the balcony, no one could precisely see who was dueling. And more importantly they were finding themselves curiously unable to join up with the feed the bikes presumably would have been displaying, a fact that had Jack, Carly, and Crow trading somewhat knowing glances as the kids went to join the dog and watch. There was really no helping it though- they’d have to ask later.

After all, anything that got Kiryu to have a riding duel had to be important, right?

The duel was short though. It lasted only a few turns, a fact that Kiryu quite ordinarily wouldn’t have minded; at least if it had been an honest duel.

He’d  _thrown the match_ , Kiryu thought to himself with a growl. More importantly however, were his ‘last words’-

‘ _As you are now, you’ll never achieve what’s needed!’_

“Tch.” By the time he had made it back to the garage, ‘foul’ did little to describe his mood to say the least. He would not however be the only one as it seemed, and from a very much unknown area of Neo Domino three figures in white would look to the grand design beneath them with wide eyes.

This would not do, they would each decide, each forming a solution within their own mind. This would not do at all.

And so later, when another ‘meteorite’ collided with the earth, one of these solutions would come to rear its snarling head.


	63. Chapter 63

A new student was not at all what was expected at this time of year to be honest, and yet that was what happened when the Christmas holidays had passed. There wasn’t much to say about Christmas to be honest; Neo Domino and a fair chunk of Japan had habits of celebrating with roaring parties around then, things that had been far too extravagant and even wasteful for those of Satellite to even briefly think over. Jack and Carly likely had a dinner of some kind- but for most of the others, it was a quiet Christmas and a quiet new years, and once it was over it was business as usual.

Well. Almost as usual. 

Rua didn’t like the looks that the new classmate ‘Lucciano’ gave his sister. He already didn’t like his attitude toward everyone else to be honest. All their other friends might as well have been flies on a wall, and while Nico didn’t notice this due to her being in a separate building on the Academy grounds, West had been more than eager to voice his own distaste as well. Not that it mattered.

Lucciano ignored or snubbed anyone he had no interest in- and then in the case of Rua himself, seemed almost _too_  eager about the idea of friendship, at least until Rua scowled and told him to  _‘f*ck off_ ’, something that got him a note from the teacher to give Kiryu and a round of scandalized grins from a few of his classmates.

He was a little surprised when, after explaining why he’d sworn in the middle of class to a staring Kiryu and Crow, the latter had called for a high-five actually. Though supposedly it had something to do with their opinion of this ‘Lucciano kid’ simply being a spoiled prat trying to get in the good graces of the ‘Signers’, and a still remaining hate for the particularly high-seated folk of Neo Domino.

Somehow, Rua wasn’t able to convince himself that this was just someone trying to rub elbows with Signers. He simply  _couldn’t_  believe that it was a case! And watching his sister play at Lucciano’s from his hiding spot a few days later, he couldn’t help but wonder what that meant for her.

Because from where he was now, he didn’t know if he could protect her.


	64. Chapter 64

While the note two days after Lucciano’s transfer would give Kiryu and Crow both a fairly clear idea of Rua’s thoughts on the boy, it was within the first day that Kiryu would gain some insight on Ruka’s own.

As he recalled, she had been strangely cheerful coming in after school that day, her face somewhat red as she shouted ‘ _I’m back_!’ with enough volume that he would have thought Rua’s voice was breaking at an early age.

Once he actually looked up from the pot of vegetables he’d been cooking however he was not only proven wrong but briefly worried she’d come down with a cold- not that she acted like she had.

“Our class got a new transfer student today!” she announced cheerfully, Kiryu staring somewhat in response before nodding. “His name is Lucciano,” Ruka continued, “He’s from Italy, and he’s the youngest riding duel champion thus far!”

Uh.

What? “ _Riding_  duel champion?” In an elementary class?!

“He uses something called a duel board,” Ruka explained, seeming to stare off. “He said he would show me this weekend even! And he’s good at standing duels too, he even beat Rua’s machine deck!”

“Oh, did he?” He smirked somewhat, looking back to the vegetables a moment. “And how did Rua take that?”

Ruka’s reddened complexion seemed to tone down a bit at that, and she laughed. “Ah. Not well to be honest,” she admitted, “I think he regrets not being able to use Lifestream Dragon in that match. But it was machine type only, so it can’t be helped.” She moved to continue before pausing, the sounds of footsteps coming over the air.

“ _ **ROUF! ROUF ROUF ROU!**_ ”

“AAaaaHAHAHA! Pone!~” Well, it seemed the others were back. If the shouts and laughs were any sign, Pone and West both would be out on the balcony soon for a round of ‘fetch’; the other two in the meantime came around the corner to the kitchen, Ruka’s earlier statement of ‘not well’ making itself known.

Initially of course he seemed quite normal, if not a little bugged about something. Unfortunately however- “Ah, Ruka,” Nico started, smiling. “You and Rua got a transfer classmate right?” As Rua groaned, she laughed, shaking her head. “Rua hasn’t told me much about him to be honest.”

“There’s just something weird about him!!” Rua protested, Kiryu raising an eyebrow as Ruka seemed to snap to their new classmate’s defense.

“There’s nothing weird at all, Rua! It was a really good combo in that duel, you shouldn’t hold it against him so much!”

“Bah! As if that’s the only reason,” he grumbled from the kitchen doorway, shooting a small glare at the ground before storming off. “I’m going to play with West and Pone!” Er.

Okay?

As Kiryu shook his head and turned his attentions to dinner again Nico began laughing, short and quiet chuckles filling the air. “Hnhnhnhn! Ruka!” she giggled, the girl looking back to her almost in confusion. “This must be a really good person to get that sort of praise from you!”

“Ah-” She blinked. “I-Is it?”

“Mhnhnh~ You like him don’t you Ruka~” What.

Kiryu paused, looking back in confusion as Ruka’s own expression instantly changed to shock. “AH- Th-That’s not it!” she sputtered, voice gradually dropping to it’s usual quiet tone. “He- He’s just really nice, that’s all…”

Wh-

What was going on.

“Kiryu-niisan, I think the water’s boiling over,” Nico abruptly said, before moving to sit with Ruka.

“Mn-!” THE VEGETABLES-

In the end he still didn’t entirely understand what was going on between Ruka and ‘Lucciano’, but given the fact that it would resolve itself in a few days as it was, it was probably nothing he would have to worry about.

At least not for a while.


	65. Chapter 65

“You’re sounding more than a little possessive right now, you realize that right?”

It was an interesting conversation to have with a twelve year old, but a conversation that apparently was required nonetheless. Not long after Ruka’s scheduled meet-up with Lucciano (Or as Nico had said, ‘date!’, which he in the end chose to simply not address), Rua had turned up with a notepad gripped firmly in his hand. 

Soon after this he’d shown him some sort of drawing of a board and asked if he had a clue where to get one, because ‘that lucciano creep is making moves on my sister!’

He very wisely decided this would be the right time to step in.

Sitting on the couch beside Kiryu, Rua frowned. “It’s not possessive ” he protested, “I’m worried! She’s my sister, she could get hurt, or worse-“

“Worse?” Kiryu repeated, cutting the boy short. “From a rich little Italian who’s probably never seen a fight?” He snorted, shaking his head. “You don’t have to like him, but it’s your sister’s choice.”

“But I-!”

“Hey.” Rua turned, and from where he was now leaning back with half closed eyes, Kiryu continued. “You need to give her some space- try to protect her too much, and you’ll just end up like me,” he added seriously, only for the boy to tilt his head in confusion.

“…I’m gonna be a necromancer?”

If he’d been drinking something, he’d have spat it out in that moment. “What-  _No_!” he choked, looking to Rua almost incredulously. “What does that have to do with-” The surprise dropped flat, Kiryu fixing a now chortling Rua with a glare. “Hey! This is serious!”

“Yea, yea, I got it!”

“I mean it.”

“Okaaaaaay!” Rua held his head, groaning a moment before instantly regaining a grin as he grabbed the notepad from the side. “But- Do you think you could still find one?” he asked, grin widening.

He looked at the sketch a moment, frowning. If it hadn’t been for Ruka mentioning the device beforehand, he wouldn’t have actually known what Rua was talking about. The fact that he was showing him a picture and asking for one however, meant one thing.

“No.”

“What!?!”

He leaned back against the couch. “Ask Crow- but I’m not making you a duel-board out of bones.”

“Awwww…”

It was truly incredible how much the twins had adapted to, really, when being told a skeleton-duel board was off limits became something that had to happen.

Rua wasn’t about to simply toss away the chance at a real one however- and so, notepad in hand, he had taken off for the garage moments after receiving the permission.

Unfortunately, unlike Kiryu, Crow hadn’t had the joys of seeing a ‘Duel-board’ yet.

Which was exactly why he, Jack, and Carly were staring at the board where the drawing was re-created for a number of minutes before the connecting the ‘thing’ to an actual device. “So it links up with the dueldisk then,” Jack was muttering, a hand on his chin as he looked to an actual image Carly had pulled up for reference. “With that you could have a simpler version of a riding duel-“

“A-Actually Jack, these can reach full speed if they’re built right,” Carly cut in with a panicked tone, Jack snapping his head from the picture to gawk.

“ _Full speed_!?”

“Hahahaaa.  _Not if I’m building it_ ,” Crow muttered, ignoring the groaning ‘awwwww’ from Rua in response. “So you want me to  _build_  a duel-board for you?” he asked, as if to double check.

“Yea!” Rua confirmed seriously. “If Ruka’s going to be dueling Lucciano, then I want to at least make sure she’s alright!”

There were a few confused glances among the adults, but in the end Crow grinned. “Heh. Alright then, I could probably get something put together- maybe even by tomorrow if you’re patient!”

“Ah- That fast!?” he asked, receiving nothing but a laugh in response.

“Oh, is it that simple, Crow?” Carly asked, the redhead turning to nod.

“Yep- there’s not much to it compared to a D-Wheel. It’s pretty much just a motorized skateboard with a speed-regulator and a disk-hook up, nothing I can’t make with what I have left over here.”

“In that case…” The others stared, and Carly pulled out her laptop with a grin. “Do you think I could film it for my blog?”

“Eh?”

“Mn? Building a duel board?” Jack asked somewhat quietly, Carly merely nodding in response.

“Yes! I’ll just need to make sure to put a few notices on the video,” she added with a faltering laugh. “Something like ‘The one building this is a professional, please don’t try it at home!’”

“Hah, a ‘professional’ eh?”

“So it’ll be ready by tomorrow morning?” Rua asked, snapping the three from their conversation. For a moment, Crow seemed to hesitate, likely to ponder how much sleep he’d get as a result.

In the end however, he smiled. “Yea,” he decided, nodding. “You can count on it.”

“AH! Great!” the boy cheered, jumping up with a grin. “I’m gonna call Kiryu, ask if I can stay until it’s done!”

“UH, WHAT??!”

“Hey Crow, where’s the phone here?”

“Oii oiii, I don’t think he’s about to let you stay over Rua!!”

Crow as it turned out was actually wrong about that, though in the end it didn’t prove to be much of a problem. He had predicted that he would spend the entire night on the board after all; so really, it wasn’t like he needed the bed for himself at the moment.


	66. The Livestream Audience

There would be one day in particular that those who frequented Carly’s ‘live-duel’ blog would think upon as the ‘rolling stone’ for the site so to speak. The day when the page officially moved from ‘mildly popular even to a celebrity or two’ all the way to ‘this is probably better than most news pages’. It was one day and one day only, and it was that day that more or less set the bar for ‘blog veterans’ and ‘sheep’ in the words of the more elitist members of the site.

Those who visited the site regularly back then were few, but they would remember checking mail to see perhaps, a notice for an unscheduled stream. It was a sudden, spur of the moment one; a stream that would happen within at least half an hour of the notice in fact.

Logging in however, would not result in the typical first-person type view that the blog was known for, wherein the viewer could watch as the duel unfolded before their eyes. In fact, there were no bikes there at all, with most being greeted by Carly herself, and two others.

The first of the two would potentially trigger some alarm bells in the minds of viewers; a heavily markered young man, red hair messily splayed upward from a headband with perhaps a few streaks of oil on his face from some earlier work. Beside him however, a more familiar face, which a few would excitedly point out in the stream chat- ‘It’s Rua!’ they typed eagerly, ‘From the Fortune Cup!’

At this point, the stream ‘officially’ began. “Hello everyone!” Carly eagerly began with a smile, giving the viewers a face to the voice for the first time in a long while. “Today I have a surprise for you! We’re not dueling right now, but right now, we’ll be showing you the construction of a Duel-Board!”

Confusion mixed with excitement in the chatroom- the  _construction_  of a Duel Board? Would that even fit in one stream?

“Here with me,” Carly was continuing, “Is my friend, Crow Hogan- He’ll be building this while I film!” she continued, the markered man giving a smile and a wave.

“Yo!” he greeted, giving off quite a warm feeling despite the markers. “Nice to meet you!” Though he seemed to hesitate with the you, likely not used to the idea of streaming.

“I’m here too!” Rua chimed in with a grin. “And Jack is…”

“He’s getting some ramen I think,” Carly told him, the chat in the meantime buzzing with curiosity.

Surely not Jack  _Atlas_  right? Surely the chances of that were slim to none!

Jack Atlas came on screen and immediately a chain reaction started; screen-captures were taken, posted through the internet. Facebook, twitter, tumblr; links to the stream were posted along with it, and all the while innocent conversation happened on the screen window with little idea as to the chaos in the chat.

“Hey you better not spill that on anything,” Crow warned as Jack came through to grab a fourth chair, the ‘king’ snorting in response.

“Hn! A king doesn’t spill his food, he eats with  _poise_ ,” he responded, taking an almost jarringly regal position in his chair to start at the ramen. “Are we ready to start then?” he added, before taking a few noodles up to his mouth.

Carly nodded. “Just about! Everything’s set up now!”

“How many people are watching us anyways?”

“Ah, well there’s normally around ten on a stream at a time,” Carly started, moving the mouse about the computer to check. “We’ve got a few more coming in it looks like though, a- AHHH!” She jumped, eyes widening. “The numbers just shot up! Wow!!”

“Is that gonna cause problems?” Rua asked from behind, Carly laughing a little uneasily.

“Well, hopefully not…” Er. “I didn’t expect to see so many, this is an exciting change! Hello everyone!”

A swarm of ‘hellos’ from those in the chat, and eager shouts of excitement. It was real! Jack Atlas and Rua in the same room, on a public stream- no professional interviews, no duel equipment (though Jack was in his coat). It was ‘casual’, off the record.

A thing that had never happened before.

“Now before we start,” Carly began as things calmed down, Rua grinning in the back as he muttered something about ‘duel-boards’, “Remember that Crow is a professional mechanic alright?” she asked. “So please don’t try anything you’re about to see here on your own!”

“What she said,” Crow continued. “Anyways. So I just… Talk right?” he asked the woman, nodding when she did the same for an affirmative. “Okay!” He shook himself, still getting used to the streaming experience. “So Rua asked me to build him a duel-board, something about making sure a classmate didn’t make a pass at his sister-“

“That’s not the reason!” came a frantic protest from behind the group, Crow responding with a relatively blank expression.

“It pretty much is, yea.”

Jack said nothing of course- he was still working away at the ramen. However he did nod, and with that Rua crossed his arms in a huff.

“Anyways, I actually haven’t worked with these before, so this should be interesting!” Crow admitted with a laugh. “We didn’t have these in Satellite, and until Carly and Rua explained them I didn’t even know they existed!”

“Principle’s pretty simple though,” Jack added in between bites. “Not like a D-Wheel, but simple enough.”

Crow nodded. “Yea, pretty much. Actually,” he continued, the camera splitting as a second turned on to reveal for the stream-audience the contents of the table before them. “Looking at it that way, it’s probably possible to make it from spare D-Wheel parts.”

“So then you just need a skateboard and a few parts right?”

“Eh. Sorta.” Crow shrugged. “Modifying an actual skateboard wouldn’t work, it’s not strong enough for those speeds. Making the shell for the board will probably be the hardest part of the construction actually,” he admitted with a pained grimace, “Since that’s the only part we’ll really have to start from scratch with. Until then though, we just need these,” he went on with a gesture. “Two wheels, a motor, this axle,” he began, those in the stream absorbing each word as he went, “And lastly these; a speed regulator,” Crow explained, pointing it out, “And a link cable.

“The regulator and the cables are the most important parts,” he told them. “It’s what controls the momentum output in a D-wheel, and without it, you’d take off like a rocket and crash in a few seconds.”

“Which is why it’s harder to create something for a greater ‘top speed’, isn’t it?” Jack half asked, taking another bite of noodles.

A nod. “Yea- you can’t just take out the regulator because that’s a good way to wind up dead. Half the troubles in ‘getting faster’ are just raising the limit bar on a regulator, and the further you go, the harder it gets. Luckily,” he continued with a smirk, “This is for a Duel-Board, so we don’t want it going nearly as fast as a D-Wheel. I’ve actually pre-programmed it to the max speed, it was pretty easy compared to the bikes I normally work with,” Crow chuckled, ignoring the ‘awwww’ in the background from the ‘speed limit’ remark.

“You can get a d-wheel when you’re older,” Jack told the boy, ignoring the loud groan in response.

“Not to mention, Ruka is probably using the commercial standard,” Carly warned him. “If you were at d-wheel speed, you’d out pace her by far too much!”

Rua merely huffed, arms crossed. “Lucciano’s probably got D-Wheel speed…”

Again the stream exploded with conversation in the chat, search engines running and fact checkers moving- ‘Lucciano’, Italy’s Riding Duel champion at the age of  _12_.

“Hn. I’d be more surprised if he didn’t,” Jack snorted, finishing off his ramen.

Meanwhile Crow merely rolled his eyes, taking the regulator and continuing his explanation  “Annnnnd this is the kid Rua’s got a vendetta with. Should be fun. Alright!” He looked to the camera, smirking. “So besides controlling max and base speed, the regulator also controls the speed change in a riding duel; it has a certain level pre-set for each speed counter, and that sets in once turn order is decided. Having a broken one can cause a lot of issues because of that, so it’s important to be careful with these,” he warned, setting it back down. “They’re sturdy as hell, but you’ve still gotta watch it.

“Then we have the motor, which is going to be sitting near the back; this should let the front wheel turn more freely, while minimizing the distance the link cable has to be. Which brings us to the cable!” Crow continued on, coughing somewhat; it was clear that he wasn’t used to explaining things like this step by step, or that he at least hadn’t for some time.

Yet with only a few bits of explaining, the stream-goers were entranced. They knew nothing about this markered man- just that he seemed nice, and obviously knew what he was talking about when it came to d-wheels and mechanics. He was friends with Jack and Carly and Rua apparently, and worked in a garage.

In fact, a few more image-savvy people managed to decipher the otherwise difficult to read sign in the back; ‘Blackwing Repairs’. Evidently they would be going here if they needed help in the area then.

The explanations were far from over however, and observing mechanics found themselves smiling and nodding with each word. No slip ups were made, no mistakes. Crow simply spoke.

“This is the Link Cable,” he told the audience. “Since most duel-disks come with a cable jack for simulators and repair connections now, this is probably the easiest part of building; this is what will make the momentum powering the dueldisk, power the board as well. And since the regulator in the board will take priority when it’s connected properly, the momentum will power both  _easily_.

“The only thing is that there’s no screen for the riding statistics. Which is where  _this_  comes in,” he continued, putting the cable down and pulling up a blue helmet. “We put the programming for the duels in here, along with a screen over one eye.”

“Ah- You mean it  _has_  to go in the helmet?” Rua asked, Jack nodding from his seat.

“That’s why the screen is in there after all!”

“Yea, it’s the only place it -can- go,” Crow added in with a shrug. “So with this, you can tell what’s going on in the duel while still being able to see; it’ll also pull up ‘Speed World 2’ when duel mode is activated. Or,” he continued, turning the helmet over to tap the side. “When the helmet is activated- I haven’t put the guts into it yet though, so it won’t do anything.”

It was remarkable to the audience how casually everyone was acting. True, the older stream-goers had seen Jack before; however it was through practice duels, and always ended with the match. Perhaps the idea of what happened outside of practice entertained their minds, but otherwise?

This simply hadn’t occurred to them.

And as Crow soon immersed himself in voicing what he was doing with the parts, the others watching and occasionally commenting, the stream viewer count continued to grow in number. More and more people world-wide tuned in, eyes peeled and keyboards tapping. 

Soon enough, there would be what looked almost like a skeleton duel-board on the table. “Okay! So this is the basic, uncovered version of the board- motor and regulator in the back, connector attaching here,” Crow explained. “Now, if we just test this,” he continued, plugging the cable into the duel disk. “And-“

- ** _FSSSZTZ-CRSZKT-!_** -

The cord was pulled out immediately. “WOAHHHHH okay! That’s not supposed to happen!” He coughed, laughing half awkwardly. “Ahaaa. Well, something’s off with the connector and motor then…”

It was almost entrancing to see what went into even the simple devices. The amount of mistakes that came out of it, versus the results.

Eventually however, one streamer noted- What happened to Rua?

And then others realized it, and looked harder-

He’d fallen asleep!

One user typed out what had happened. And another, and another. And finally as Carly peeked at the stream chat she blinked. “Rua is asleep?”

The group turned, and as they looked to the boy on the couch stared. “Aw shit,” Crow muttered. “We move him now he’ll probably just wake up…”

Jack took one look and shrugged. “Hn. He can sleep there then,” he decided, standing up a moment to pull his coat off.

“Eh?”

As the others stared, those in the stream half froze for a moment- with no more comment Jack pulled his trademark coat over the boy’s form, taking a seat again and looking to Crow with a ‘smile’ of sorts. “There! He’ll at least be warm now,” he concluded. “That fabric is better quality than anything in your wardrobe combined Crow!”

“AW, STUFF IT!” Crow snapped back, only to grin rather maliciously. “I’m not the one who froze his ass off in Hokkaido.”

“NH-!”

“Eh, Hokkaido?” Carly asked, those in the stream wondering the same thing aloud, but not in mind. “But Jack had a hat and cloak when I saw you two there.”

A few questioning viewers- hat? Cloak??

It was strange enough seeing him without the coat!

And yet the conversation between the three they were watching moved on.

“Yea, he had those by then,” Crow was telling Carly, grin refusing to fade. “But that was only after we’d gotten there.”

“EH?! You drove that far with just the jacket!?”

“Of course! I wasn’t cold at all!”

The looks on the others faces said ‘yes,  yes he was’.

There was a time and a place for those conversations however- soon enough, it turned back to the board. “Alright, last test!” Crow announced. “Connection?”

Jack plugged the link cable in and nodded.

“Alright- Carly, hit the button!” Crow called, holding the axle of the board off the ground so the wheels could spin.

“Ah, right!”

The button was pushed.

And aside from the spinning of motors and wheels, there was nothing.

“Heheheeee! Success! Alright, push the button before disconnecting,” he warned, the others doing just that before Crow continued with his ‘lesson’ to the stream-goers. “Okay, so now we have a duel board with no shell,” he explained, a pained smile slowly coming on his face. “Which means, of course…” Ugh.

“Oh, that’s right, you said this was the hardest part,” Carly murmured.

“Hn! If he messes up the paint job, I’ll do it over myself,” Jack announced, the stream muttering to each other about yet another tidbit of information they had never known of the man.

Carly sighed. “Jack…” 

“I painted your bike didn’t I?” Carly’s bike was painted by Jack?!

Evidently he was not only able to paint D-Wheels, but he was good at it then, a few streamers would point out both in chat and on other pages- Carly’s bike looked  _good._

It was at this point that Crow pulled out some sheet metal, and with a sigh moved to work however. And it was with that, that once again the stream turned to silence in order to focus.

“Okay,” Crow decided, cracking his knuckles. “Let’s get to work!”

It would be the first of the ‘major streams’ in the opinions of those watching. The first stream to truly change everything. Soon after the video, an offer to fund the page would be made to Carly. Donations would shoot up, giving even more options for videos and quality of images.

It was as though the blog had gained recognition ‘over night’.

And in a sense, with the board’s completion at dawn, that was exactly what had happened really.


	67. Chapter 67

It was lucky that the next day was Saturday to be honest, or else they wouldn’t have had this chance. In all honesty, the fact that any of them could stay awake was a bit of a surprise- though admittedly, they’d all wound up sleeping on anything from chairs to beds to cots in order to get at least an hour or so in.

They were probably more fortunate that staying up so late meant that Rua slept in, so when he  _did_  wake up they were at least able to shake off the exhaustion for a bit with some coffee.

“Ah- It’s finished!” the boy had exclaimed once he spotted the board, Crow grinning from where he was sitting with the coffee mug. “How’d you fit my feet though?”

“We used your shoes,” Carly admitted with a small laugh. “But you know, there’s still one more step!”

“Eh?” Rua blinked, only to stare as he was handed not only his new helmet, but also an attached camera.

“You still need to test it!” Carly told him with a smile. “But at the same time, you probably don’t want Kiryu or anyone looking over your shoulder while you learn right?”

“I know  _I_  wouldn’t have!” Jack snorted, Rua merely laughing.

“Aha… Uhm.”

“While the stream happens through this camera, Kiryu and I can watch. And-“

Rua beamed. “Stream? You mean this is going on the internet!?”

“Er.” She blinked. “I suppose if you want…”

The boy cheered, grabbing the board and throwing his helmet and shoes on. “What are we waiting for, lets go!!”

“Ah- W-Wait, Kiryu isn’t even here yet!!”

“This is gonna be awesome!”

“Rua!!”

No use- He’d run off already.

Though thankfully Kiryu had been swift to arrive himself; particularly since Rua had neglected to bother learning how the camera even turned on.

Carly and Kiryu never actually left the area in the end however- instead, once the camera was activated and the feed tested, Rua tore off with his board for the nearest duel track while Kiryu and Carly both took a seat at a bench with the laptop.

“And that’s stream start,” she murmured to herself, clicking the double screen so that she could be seen as well. “Okay! Video on! Hello everyone! It’s Carly with another unscheduled stream! I’m here with another friend, but he doesn’t like being filmed, so if you hear someone speaking that’s normal alright?”

Kiryu for his part didn’t look like he intended to say much as it was, merely looking to the area of the screen showing what Rua was doing. All in all, seeing things from Rua’s height was a little ‘imposing’. Suddenly things were ‘larger’, or at least ‘taller’, giving a fairly disorienting sense of being.

“Right now, Rua is going to find a duel track to try his new board on,” Carly was telling her ‘audience’, smiling. “He asked if the video could go on livestream, so here we are!” She giggled somewhat, and on the stream chat there were eager comments of what was yet to come, as well as a few greetings or conversational bits among the chatters themselves.

Rua’s trek didn’t take too long- He soon found the practice track to start on, and soon enough started trying (and failing) to hold his balance.

It was at this point that Kiryu tapped Carly’s shoulder, the woman turning. “Eh?”

“I need to borrow your phone for a second,” he said plainly, a few of the stream-goers idly wondering among themselves who it was that was speaking. “Ruka was worried even though she knew where he was- she wanted to apologize about things.”

“Ah, really?” She asked, hurriedly pulling out her phone. “Alright!”

There was a nod, and the call was made- and as the phone was handed back, Carly smiled.

“And?”

“Watch.”

“Eh?”

‘Watch’ was accurate enough it seemed- Soon enough Rua’s camera picked up on Ruka herself, and though he initially turned away with the apparent intent to leave, she stopped him.

‘ _Wait!_ ’ she’d called out, holding her board close. ‘ _I’m sorry I haven’t been listening. I know you want to beat Lucciano, and…’_

As the girl trailed off, Rua had merely grinned.

‘ _Want to practice with me?_ ’

_‘Ah- Yes, of course!’_

“Awwww~” Carly beamed, Kiryu revealing little more than the slightest smile from beside her. “It’s good that they’re getting along again! Siblings shouldn’t fight,” she thought aloud, only to frown. “Mn?”

“What is it?” Kiryu asked, watching as Carly stiffened.

Over the screen, the audio told them-

 _‘A duel against both of you? How fun!~_ ’

“Ahh, not good!” Carly exclaimed, moving to close the laptop only for an arm to stop her. “Eh?”

“If we close it, we can’t see what’s happening to them,” Kiryu argued sternly, hands twitching as the bones of the D-Wheel parked nearby shifted. “We’ll do this instead,” he continued, the laptop snatched up as confused viewers witnessed both the start of an almost unbelievable duel and the movement of various skeletons as they locked the computer in place upon Kiryu’s D-Wheel. There was no time to go back to the garage- so with a borrowed skull helm Carly found herself hopping in a hurriedly formed side-car with the laptop locked upon it, the vehicle taking off. “Keep track of what’s going on!” he warned, Carly nodding tensely. “What track are they going to?”

She looked to the laptop, narrowing her eyes only to blink- comments in the stream were cropping up like wildfire, and while many were some variant of ‘what’s going on!?’, there were a few more in response to Kiryu’s question-

“Ah- East side of the central tracks, near the bridges!” she cried, Kiryu nodding as the bike picked up speed. Carly looked back to the screen a moment, stiffening as an attack blasted against Rua on the other end of the feed. “Ahhhh!”

“What is it?!”

“R-Real damage- It’s a real damage duel!” she choked out, looking to him with wide eyes. “Just like Crow’s duel with ‘Ghost’- they’re taking real damage!”

For a brief moment one could have sworn a flash of fear came over Kiryu’s face- a mental question of how the pain Crow had withstood in those matches would compare to the one Rua and Ruka were both locked in, or how it could compare to those of the Dark Signer matches. In an instant however, it was replaced with rage.

A rage that only grew as ‘Skiel’ appeared, Carly’s eyes widening with horror as the angle from which Rua was forced to look upon it from made all too clear the danger he was in now.

Like Wisel, it was a beast formed of five monsters, each supporting the other.

Like Wisel, they realized as they drove, it was a ‘Synchro stealer’, snatching up Ancient Fairy Dragon and absorbing it as its own.

Quite unlike with Wisel however, it seemed that this one’s owner had a name.

Rua caught one look at the face beneath the hood of their opponent and grew white. ‘ _Lu- LUCCIANO_!’ he shouted, the boy’s eyes widening. ‘ _RUKA! IT’S LUCCIANO!_ ’

The stream exploded as all others watching stared in shock. Surely not, right? The same ‘Lucciano’ who came from Italy and had caused so much trouble before?

Lucciano admitted it himself. ‘ _You caught on too late_!’ he laughed, bones rattling as Carly and Kiryu hurriedly made their way toward the track. ‘ _Now I’ll make you draw the circuit!_ ’

What was happening? What did all of this  _mean?_

Rua’s only defense for his sister proved to fail as Kiryu turned the corner and came within sight of the track, the bones of the device seeming to rattle with anticipation. Yet despite this, he seemed to have ‘succeeded’.

‘ _I told you to stay away from my sister!_ ’ he roared, his cards pulling the Ancient Fairy Dragon out from Skiel’s grasp as his voice became heard over stream and distance both. “ _AND I MEANT IT_!”

“Kiryu, are we close enough?” Carly asked, the man growling in response.

“Almost,” he answered, those watching as a third party wondering what that meant. “Al-“

It was Lucciano’s turn and Lucciano was not about to waste it. With a few choice movements, the cards shuffled around.

Skiel Attack 3.

Skiel Attack 5.

And with another few words the danger made itself all too clear.

Skiel Attack 5’s effect activated; “MACHINE EMPEROR SKIEL!” Lucciano ordered with a grin. “ATTACK HIM DIRECTLY!”

“But if that connects-!”

“ _NO_!”

The blast was more than enough to throw him from the board. More importantly however, was how far off the corner he fell.

Bones rattled and the laptop and Carly briefly seemed to spin before they were left at the side of the road, the woman stumbling as Kiryu acted. The bones stretched, ‘flying’, reaching forward- they caught the falling boy in their grasp and as they fell those watching the stream gaped.

And yet the duel was not over. Kiryu returned with Rua in his arms and the bike was reformed, the boy wordlessly placed in the side-car with Carly. They took off again, but this time there was no visual of the duel that was occurring  no sign of what was going on.

A wave seemed to pass over them, and those who were attending the stream seemed to pause. What were they watching?

Why were they watching it? Scrolling through comments they would see things they had never remembered saying, things that should have been impossible.

Ruka lost her duel, as it seemed. That, however, no longer mattered much to the stream-audience, who had no idea what the duel had been about any longer.

What was more important was the duel aftermath. The house that no longer existed, Rua and Ruka trading uneasy glances and soon after being driven back by Kiryu to explain the recent turn of events. The name that no longer existed, this ‘Lucciano, champion of Italy’ that had been recorded in the chat log pulling up nothing at all in searches.

As though history itself had been rewritten, the audience, and soon enough Carly and the others as well, would realize.

And not far from them, in a place far unknown to the city, Lucciano seethed.

The stream-video could not be erased from time. The camera had been in the possession of a Signer, the recording thus protected. Carly Nagisa, who created the website, was in such constant presence with the signers that even that was impossible, and if they were to go further than all would be lost.

The video could not be erased from time.

And what was worse, it was no longer only the Signers, but also portions of the public, who knew of what occurred that day.


	68. Chapter 68

If there was anything he was less than inclined to turn down in life, it was a free meal. Until recently food had been something you truly had to work and fight for in Satellite after all- in some areas it even still was, despite how much time had passed since 'restoration'. Finding someone willing to give you food was a blessing.

Now of course, he could easily keep a fridge stocked while running the garage; Carly’s livestream had ensured that in fact, with a fair number of customers cropping up from seemingly nowhere. However when Mikage and her co-worker ‘Ushio’ extended an invitation for a small dinner he wasn’t about to turn it down. Supposedly they’d invited Carly and Jack as well, but they hadn’t taken the offer.

He’d chalked it up to them being busy really; Carly still had a fair bit of deck-sorting to do compared to the others of her team after all.

In the end it was their loss, he thought to himself with a grin, tearing into his food. It was a little  _odd_  that they’d do this really. Very odd, now that he thought about it. However between what had happened recently and the fact that they never had gotten back with a decent enough apology for jumping at the idea of Kiryu being their wanted criminal, he figured better late than never, right?

“Enjoying the food then?” Mikage asked sweetly, receiving a nod in response.

“This is great!” he responded. “ _Really_  great after ramen,” he added with a laugh, going for another bite. “I-” Hold on.

He frowned, slowly pausing to look over their own dishes. There was next to nothing in front of them, save the bits of appetizer that had come from earlier; given the fact that he’d had his for a good ten minutes, it was more than enough to start a few alarm bells.

“Your food still not here?” he asked after a few moments, the two visibly stiffening.

“Ah- Well, actually,” Mikage admitted with a short cough, “I only ordered a desert.”

“I’m not that hungry,” came Ushio’s own defense, Crow looking from one to another with narrowed eyes.

Something wasn’t right here…

“…What’s this really about?” he asked uneasily, quite suddenly losing his appetite.

“Hn. Truth is,” Ushio started, “We have a small favor to ask of you.”

He was soon going to regret mowing down that steak.

Though he supposed, in the end, that this explained why Jack had turned down the offer of a free meal from the start.


	69. Chapter 69

Bruno wasn’t all that bad to be perfectly honest; this was something that was clear from the start.

Initially of course, he’d been ready to tell Ushio and Mikage to stuff it even with the food debt they’d stuck him with, what with them finding the young man poking around his D-Wheel- however as a quick check would show, it wasn’t quite ‘poking around’ in the typical sense.

“…You rewrote the program.”

“Only a little!” ‘Bruno’ as he was called, protested. “It’s for energy efficiency; it’ll make the conversion rate a lot faster, so speed can be altered easier and-“

“I got it.” He knew what conversion rates meant! However that wasn’t the point. And after a few moments- “You guys know where to take him right?” he asked, Mikage and Ushio both staring a few moments before nodding hesitantly.

Bruno blinked. “Oh- You mean you’re the guy I’ll be living with for now?” he asked with a grin.

Crow merely smirked, giving a two-fingered ‘salute’ of sorts. “Looks like it! Looking forward to making engines with you ‘Bruno’!”

Bruno wouldn’t be entirely sure what part of the engines Crow was talking about, but that didn’t change the fact that he was looking forward to it himself. Why he’d made the decision based on something so trivial to begin with didn’t even come to mind to him in fact.

It came to Crow’s however, once they started working. The hours seemed to pass in the blink of an eye as they typed, and though Crow’s chatter would likely have been a bit  _too_  much for the standard D-Wheel mechanic, Bruno found himself enjoying the conversation quite a bit. Crow himself liked having someone to work with for once.

More importantly however, was that he somehow felt reminded of  _him._  Not during their Satisfaction days of course. Hell, he couldn’t even imagine Bruno anywhere near something like Team Satisfaction!

Back when they were kids though, that was another story. Back when he  _smiled_.

As they worked on the program, Crow was reminded of those days, and at some points found himself painfully thinking of how things had become reversed. The clock at the side ticked to later hours and it was him shaking Bruno’s shoulder and asking if he was tired, or if he had eaten, getting an ‘ _Oh, I’m fine_ ’ in response. Waking up in the morning it was him coming down to find himself the second to awaken rather than the first, curiously asking Bruno if he’d even slept before eventually pulling him away to the couch. ‘ _You can’t do things properly without a good night’s sleep, come on!_ ’

It took them a full week to finish the program. It was a week with the occasional break for a job, or in some cases conversation; D-Wheels came in occasionally, and other times it was Kiryu and the kids, or Jack with Carly. They would all be surprised at the new addition to the garage, but in the end between Crow’s confidence and the changes being made to the D-Wheels there were no complaints. Bruno was certainly friendly enough!

Although come to think, Crow realized dully the next afternoon as they both sat back and waited for the backup of their finally completed program to complete, Kiryu had only come with the kids last time; ordinarily he’d be accompanied by Pone at least.

Exactly… What would Bruno’s reaction to a skeleton dog be then, when-

“HHAAAAAAAH!?!”

Crow turned, snorting in amusement as he got his answer.

“How are you doing that?? There’s no cables or wires or anything! Is it hidden in the skull? Is there something else here??”

Nico laughed somewhat uneasily, one hand gripping the leash around the dog’s ‘neck’ and the other rubbing the back of her own. “Pone’s just a skeleton Bruno-san,” she admitted with a cough. “There’s no machinery involved in that sort of thing you know.”

West nodded. “Mn! That’s right- Kiryu-nii bound his spirit to his bones so that he could interact with things properly!”

“Skeleton?” Eh. “Spirits!?” EHHH? Quite suddenly Bruno looked extremely uncomfortable, if not terrified, and was looking over to Crow with the expression of a kicked puppy. “H-Hey, Crow! Are they serious!?”

A nod.

Cue more panicking. “G-Ghosts are real!?”

“ _ **Rouf rouuuuf!**_ ” Pone merely barked, stepping forward as Bruno stepped back.

“Hihhhhhh!!!”

“ _ **ROUF!**_ ” The dog wagged his tail, jumping forward as Bruno again stepped back. “ _ **ROUF ROU- rOUF!**_ ”

“Hey hey, stay back okay!! You’re a lot bigger than a cat!” …Bruno, what- “AHCK-“

There was a clattering sound as Bruno was knocked back by the dog, Nico and West both giving a shout as the lead was pulled from grip.

“AAAH- H-Hey-” He sputtered, Pone’s tail still wagging as he sat over the man and made motions to ‘lick’ at his face. “H-HEY!!” Bruno protested, soon breaking into a grin. “That tickles! Stop that!!”

“ ** _Rouf_**!”

“You don’t even have a tongue! This shouldn’t be possible!!”

“ ** _Rrrrr ROUF_**!”

Bruno eventually managed to sit up, tentatively rubbing where he guessed the dog’s ears to be. “Hahhh. This is so weird…”

“Eheheeee~” Crow merely grinned at that. “You should see their bike!”

“EH?”

In the end, it was probably good that Kiryu had stayed home that day to help the twins with their boards.


	70. Chapter 70

Creating a backup was something that Pearson had ingrained into Crow’s mind from the start to be honest, and in a place such as Satellite that was really no surprise. If anyone got a hold of what they worked on, and there was no other copy, then they could potentially lose weeks of work; not something they could afford.

So even here, in Neo-Domino, where the security of the place was seemingly such that it was impossible to have such a risk involved, he made a back up copy of the files he and Bruno had completed. Between that and the engine parts Bolger’s VP had left him after all, there was no doubt that the bikes would be ready for the coming tournament.

This did not change his response when, logging into the computer the next morning, he spotted the computer’s access history. “Bruno,” he started, looking back somewhat as the man yawned and moved for the fridge. “Did you use this in the middle of the night again?”

Sleep was something Bruno appeared to be almost adverse to, to be honest; he tended to get up at odd hours claiming he wasn’t tired at all, which unfortunately had Crow woken up, and so on, so on.

Bruno blinked. “Erm- Actually, I slept all night this time!” he told his friend with a smile. “Honest!” He looked back, frowning. “Hah, we’re out of ramen already?”

The shorter of them ignored this, tapping a few keys with a scowl. “So then who the hell logged in at 2 AM then-” He stiffened. “OHHHHHHH this is JUST-“

“Crow, did you eat ramen this morning?”

“WHO BROKE INTO THE GARAGE!?”

“Er-” Bruno choked somewhat as Crow turned, both of them freezing as the latter looked to the ramen wrapper in his hand.

“Didn’t I empty the garbage last night?” Crow muttered, his friend nodding.

“Yes! That’s why I was asking if-” He stopped, a grin suddenly coming on his face. “OH! If it wasn’t you, and it wasn’t me, doesn’t that mean that the culprit did it?”

A scowl was his answer. “I don’t see how a thief breaking in and eating our ramen while messing with things is comforting you know!”

Bruno hurriedly shook his head, moving to grab a small scanner from the side. “No no- This is good!” he insisted. “You can’t open these easily, even with bare hands!” the man explained, Crow slowly realizing what he was getting at. “Which means that even if he was wearing gloves-“

“A fingerprint!” Crow grinned. “HAH! Let’s see who we’re dealing with then,” he muttered, leaning over the chair as they moved to scan the print.

The program opened, a connection to Security went underway, and-

‘DUEL LOCK ACTIVATED’

“…Fun.” “Aaah-“

What an absolutely  _lovely_  Saturday this was turning into.


	71. Chapter 71

What an absolutely  _lovely_  sound he came in to when he dropped by, Kiryu thought to himself sarcastically.

“THAT  _FUCKING CLOWN!_ ”

“Bad time?” Kiryu remarked with a dry tone, watching from the doorway as Crow fumed below.

“That fucking clown from Security broke into our garage!” he snapped up, receiving a raised eyebrow in response.

“Er-” Bruno coughed. “Well, we still have the back up right?”

“That’s not the point!” Crow protested, his friend flinching in a manner almost comical from Kiryu’s stance. “The hell does he think he’s doing?!”

“Do you think if he did it, he cares?”

Before Crow could give a snapping remark to that, Bruno coughed. “Uhm. Well either way, there’s not much we can do right? So-“

“LIKE HELL THERE’S NOTHING WE CAN DO!”

“AH-“

And this was how they wound up chasing a short jester-like man around a mall with a number of loosely puppeted skeletons.

Of course, as some of them would realize in the end, entering the mall at all was obviously an attempt to lose them. Which meant that Jaeger had yet to deliver his stolen goods.

Which meant that Jaeger had reasons beyond his own gain for this.

Which, in turn, led to them realizing-

“Hn! Figures,” Kiryu muttered as he drove, looking up to the air where his skeletal eagle followed Jaeger’s ride. “Left as soon as he figured we lost him.”

If they were so obvious in their pursuit, they would never find the true culprit.

“Errrrrmmmm.” Bruno swallowed from the hap-hazard side-car he was in, looking entirely uncomfortable about the reality-defying ride he was getting. “Is it okay to leave Crow like that?” he asked, scratching his head.

“He’ll find us easy enough,” Kiryu responded. “We didn’t have time to find him first though.”

“Er. Right.”

It was incredible, how little the bones rattled if he put focus into it really. As they came to the building Kiryu brought them to a stop, pulling Bruno behind a section of wall as he scoped out the entrance. Security was tight- impossibly so, one might even say.

“H-AHH-!”

Not so much for someone who could create a lift from skeletons.

“Hmn-!” Kiryu landed to the ground beside a fallen Bruno, the taller shaking as he stood.

“W-Wasn’t there a better wa-“

“No.”

“Aaaaaaahh…”

A similar conversation would almost start when they came to the door in question, Kiryu tearing it apart with skeletons, as Bruno stared and slowly raised a hand.

As Kiryu fixed him with a ‘look’, he quickly decided against making a complaint. “Eh- I’ll look in this direction!” he offered, laughing uneasily.

Kiryu nodded. “Take the bear then,” he told him, the ‘bear’ in question re-forming at his side.

Looking to the skeleton, Bruno swallowed. “Aha- Right!”

Going in the other direction, Kiryu would thus be left with what seemed to be a few somewhat smaller animals in terms of skeletal structure, giving more than enough leeway once doors began to close. In fact, when they  _did_  begin to close over him, he found himself half snorting.

“Hn! Is this all then?” he ‘asked’ with a smirk, crossing his arms. “I think you can do better than that.”

A single note on the bone flute and the skeletons tore at metal once again, unfettered by any shocks and fail-safes locked within the door’s structure. As they pounded, he thought he could hear panicked shouts in fact, prompting a frown.

 _Surely_  not, right?

“H-HIHHHHH!!”

The metal was pulled down, and across from him Jaeger trembled.

Evidently, it was indeed quite possible for them to run into each other this way.

Kiryu cracked his knuckles, moving to stand over the man with a threatening stare. “So,” he began, the skeletons around him looming quite dangerously over his shoulders. “You’re the one who broke into Crow’s garage.”

“H-H-Hihhhh-! It won’t happen again!” the man sputtered out, eyes fixed on the bones rather than the controller, as it seemed.

He raised an eyebrow- that, after all, had been a remarkably quick confession and promise. Before he could speak however the doors began to close yet again- from the side below, a large robot of sorts rolled out at a sluggish pace, LED lights glimmering in its eyes.

‘DUEL’, it demanded, Kiryu fixing the robot with a frown.

“Ahhhh- Not now!” Jaeger panicked, “The building will-“

What the building would do was never quite addressed properly in the end, as Jaeger’s words were cut short by a swift flute tone.

“ **No** ,” was all Kiryu said to the robot, the skeletons launching themselves at the device.

In the end it would be a narrow escape for everyone, particularly since the bear left with Bruno would wind up carrying the man out himself, but if anything came out of it, it was this.

“You have my word,” Jaeger shouted as he blew away, balloon pulling him far off into the air as the others stood outside the blazing wreckage of the factory. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll tell you everything!”

“Does it now,” Kiryu started flatly, staring up as the clown-faced man stiffened.

“HIHH! Don’t blame me!” he protested with one last cry. “Just act with caution- Illiaster isn’t to be trifled with! Goodbye!”

They decided in the end that it wouldn’t have been worth it to chase him down with the skeletons. Particularly since whatever he’d stolen had already been ‘destroyed’ in the wreckage of the factory. And when Bruno woke up there would be a bit of awkward pause as he attempted to make sense of all that had gone on, Crow in the meantime arriving all too late for the ‘show’.

For his part, Kiryu wanted nothing more than to go home by that time; though at least things had gone somewhat better than expected over all.


	72. Chapter 72

The streams on Carly’s blog had formed a few separate categories as the days of the tournament approached, and each tended to have their own selective fanbase. There were the twin’s streams, which continued despite the events of ‘Lucciano’s Duel’ as they were called, the sight of the duel track from a child’s eyes being something of rather remarkable interest to some.

There were the ‘practice’ streams, which took place on the professional track. Though the official tournament track had yet to open, that did not change how often the team trained, and as the days came closer the moments where Crow’s garage was properly open for business.

Lastly however, were the casual streams. Such were the streams where all professionalism was dropped, creating a window to reality that very few had access to. Such were the streams that only the dedicated fans, only the viewers who truly cared to watch, had access to. Such were the streams that happened at any hour, without warning. They were never scheduled, the casual streams, and it was one such stream that happened somewhat late in the evening a few weeks before the tournament.

“Hi everyone!” Carly started, using her D-Wheel screen as a sort of reference as the stream started. “Jack and I are going to try testing a few new strategies with cards we traded!”

From the side, Jack nodded, already set to drive. Carly’s turn toward him was brief; she soon looked back to the field, engines starting.

“Let’s have a good match!” she cheered, bikes preparing to take off.

As the stream progressed however, the viewers would find themselves in an awkward spot. Initially, it seemed that nothing was out of the ordinary; Jack took his turn, and through one of his typical combos summoned Red Daemon’s Dragon.

As Carly immediately cut her engine however, it was revealed that this was far from the case. “Ah- Jack!” she scolded, eyes wide in protest. “You didn’t use the card!”

“Mn- What do you mean, I got Red Daemons on the field didn’t I?”

“But Trust Guardian-“

“How do you know I just didn’t draw it?”

The stream-goers began to grow tense watching the scene. It was the beginning of the sort of argument that only few of them were familiar with, and not the sort they wished to witness.

Carly frowned. “You looked at your hand with a ‘face’,” she protested. “And you hesitated! You had it in your hand the entire time, didn’t you!”

“I did not!”

He was proven wrong when she stormed over to check for herself.

And there it was.

“Trust Guardian! Jack, don’t lie!”

Jack snorted. “HN! I didn’t need it to begin with,” he argued, “So why bother?”

“But what if you do-“

“I don’t need it!”

“Jack…”

Jack paused, apparently having crossed a line of sorts. Given the look on his face, it was likely that Carly’s own was less angered now and more just ‘upset’.

In the end, he moved to bring the bike off the track. “Let’s just stop for tonight,” he decided in the end.

“R-Right.”

Perhaps Carly had forgotten that she was still streaming, but those watching would soon find themselves watching the D-wheels in the garage. And perhaps most would have called it quits there, but not two hours later they would find the doors opened again, some of those still watching eagerly sitting up to see what would occur.

The surprise when security officers came in would be shared by all of them however; however there was no mistaking what they saw.

Shouts were filling the air, and panic arose amid all others watching-

‘Jack Atlas,’ they could barely hear over the stream feed, ‘You’re under arrest.’


	73. Chapter 73

The backlash that security was receiving within so little as an hour of the arrest was impressive, given the lack of news coverage that had been brought out thus far. What with it having been as early as three in the morning by the time Jack was taken into the holding cell, the fact that there had been  _any_  backlash had been impressive in fact; they’d had most of Carly’s devices entirely locked down, and though there  _had_  been suspicions about her helmet, she’d sworn that she’d cut the camera feed.

Evidently she had not cut it soon enough however, as in addition to her adamant shouts to the police in the room above interrogation, many were now dealing with a flood of angry calls not unlike what Carly herself was saying.

‘It’s impossible for him to have done it!’ they were protesting, even when Jack had been hauled away to a holding cell regardless. ‘he was in his home the entire time, there’s even camera evidence!’

‘how can he have been on the road committing these crimes if he was on his duel track?’

‘why would he commit these crimes in the first place!?’

With all the complaints many of the officers found themselves wondering what as going on as well. How long could they hold him, if they had this? A quick peek at the ‘stream’ did indeed show that there was a bike locked up in a garage during the time of the attacks- yet the head of Illiaster insisted that they continue investigation, holding Jack Atlas in custody.

So then how did they deal with the problem now?

“You can’t keep him here!” Carly protested sternly. “There’s too much evidence in his favor- you’d be breaking your own laws if you held him any longer!”

“Er-” Ushio coughed, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m not saying I disagree with you,” he started uneasily, “But-“

“Then why haven’t you listened!?”

At that moment the door swung open, and any of their arguments suddenly became pointless.

“Ushio, get to one of the cycles!” Mikage ordered as she rushed in, the officer in question staring.

“Mn- The cycle!?”

“Eh- What’s going on,” Carly started, Mikage’s next words leaving the woman pale with shock.

“It’s Jack,” she explained rather frantically. “He’s broken out of his cell and is already on the road as we speak!”

It would be with great surprise, to those who acted on the first stream, when a second began.

It would be with greater surprise when they saw, from the view of Carly’s helmet, an uncharacteristically menacing Jack Atlas stand with his d-wheel at the edge of an obvious accident site, shattered glass littering the ground and falling to the seas beneath the track as he ‘grinned’.

And watched as, without so much as a single word to those before him, the ‘Duel King’ drove away.


	74. Chapter 74

It wasn’t every day that they found themselves dealing with a weepy-eyed Carly, and if anything, dealing with a weepy-eyed Carly was probably the first sign of the reason she was weepy to begin with, but there it was.   
  
” _WuaaaaaaAAAAAAH_ \- He’s DEAAAAAD,” she wailed from the couch in Crow’s garage, somewhat awkwardly holding Pone close as the dog whined. “He’s go _ooooooone_!!”   
  
Yes. Well. “Are you  _sure_  about that?” Crow asked somewhat uncomfortably. “I mean, I don’t see Jack doing these things either,” he added, ignoring the news feed that Bruno was still watching in the background, “But that doesn’t exactly mean-“   
  
“But if the other one wasn’t him, then who fell through the glass?” she protested, both Kiryu and Crow trading a glance.   
  
“Mnnnn…”   
  
“Alright,” Kiryu decided, moving from where he’d been leaning against the wall, “It won’t hurt to check.”   
  
A few moments later, as the sound of roaring water sounded beside them, Kiryu looked from the scattered wreckage on the track above before turning back to the sea.   
  
“Well,” he finally said, “I can tell you this. If he did fall,” Kiryu explained flatly, evidently still not at all believing that to be the case, “He would most definitely be dead.”   
  
“AAAAAAAH-!” Carly stiffened. “Don’t say it so lightly!”   
  
“Jack’s too stubborn to die,” he offered in his defense, “So I doubt this was the case.”   
  
“Then don’t say things like that!”   
  
“Guys.” The two turned to where Crow was stooped down, watching as he slowly turned to face them. “…Carly,” he continued, the woman growing pale. “You gave him this, right?”   
  
It was with a cautious sort of hesitancy that she reached toward the card Crow was holding, taking it from his hands.   
  
And it was with choked sobs that could only scarcely be voiced that she nodded.   
  
It couldn’t be, they wanted to say.   
  
Yet somehow, seeing the ‘Trust Guardian’ there did not help their reasoning at all.


	75. Chapter 75

There were many advantages to having a multiform D-Wheel of bones, and as Kiryu grimaced, he found himself utilizing a good number of them as he leered at the ‘thing’ impersonating his friend. Speed was already something he had an edge in; all it took was a bit more focus, a bit more of the energy for which the source was unknown, and he was outstripping others with ease.   
  
As he came within range of the impostor Wheel of Fortune however he stiffened, looking back to those behind him with an almost satirically inclined glare.   
  
“YOU IDIOTS,” he roared, a few of the others giving chase trading confused looks. “IT’S A GOD DAMNED  _MACHINE_!”   
  
“WHAT-“   
  
“THE HELL ARE YOU EVEN TALKING ABOUT?” Crow added, more likely referring to how his friend knew rather than what the device was.   
  
If not for the bones he wouldn’t have been able to quite maneuver the wheels to the extent that he was more or less pushing against the wall with as much force as the impostor creation was using against him- regardless, as he ground his teeth he continued.   
  
“IT DOESN’T HAVE A FUCKING SOUL, THAT’S WHAT!”   
  
And of course immediately after that the impostor slammed against his bike even harder, just about dislocating his shoulder in the process.   
  
“Ng-H”   
  
“HOW CAN YOU EVEN TELL?” he heard someone ask from the back, the man rolling his eyes before another shudder came through.   
  
“I WORK WITH SKELETONS, HOW THE HELL DO YOU THINK?!”   
  
There was no time for a response to that- soon after, another shudder passed through the skeletons, and this time Kiryu found himself caught off guard.   
  
“G-NGHK-!”   
  
The bones scattered as his energy faded, and by the time he recovered the impostor was well on his way ahead of them. With a snarl he prepared to charge toward it yet again, the others coming into sight once more as he reformed a less empowered cycle.   
  
“You alright?” someone called back.   
  
“Do I _look_ like it?” came the sarcastic response, and as he prepared to say but one more thing, the familiar roar of yet one more engine came over the air- and as they stared, the driver growled.   
  
“TCH! HEY,  _YOU_!” Jack roared to his impostor, hair appearing somewhat wet and the bike as well seeming curiously worn. “WE’RE HAVING A REMATCH!”   
  
“Ahh!! Jack, wait!!”   
  
“Mn?” There was a brief pause as a card was tossed his way, and when Jack looked at it he smirked. “Hn! You want me to use this no matter what, don’t you?” he questioned, expecting no answer nonetheless.   
  
The duel would begin and as false images of Red Daemons covered in off colour scales met the air, it turned out that the very card Carly had given him truly was the key to victory. The power of the Crimson Dragon arose above them, and red light seared the sky in the final moments- and in the end?   
  
Standing over the ruins of the impostor as it seemed to decay before their eyes, Kiryu snorted.   
  
“I told you it was a machine.”   
  
“You mean you guys actually thought it was me!?”   
  
“AH! I didn’t!!”   
  
“Oi oi, we didn’t think it was you, we just didn’t think it was a robot either!!”   
  
“I can’t believe you! Any of you!”   
  
“J-Jaaaaaaack!”   
  
In the end, everyone wound up sleeping at Crow’s garage, being too exhausted to drive much further than that.


	76. Chapter 76

With what little sleep anyone was getting for the evening of and after the matter of ‘Impostor Jack’, it was no surprise that the moods of any involved were more or less sour when they were woken up the next morning by a loud shout.

“HOW  _DARE_  HE!”

The first to react was Carly to say the least- being the closest, and thankfully the least volatile as well, she merely jolted herself awake to look over at where Jack was staring at his bike’s screen. “Eh?” She blinked, groping around for her glasses. “Jack?”

The others for their part were storming down stairs already. “Aaaaugh… Jack, can’t this wait another hour?” Crow yawned, only to raise an eyebrow when Jack looked back with a scowl.

“Look at this!” Jack instead protested, the others rather blearily gathering around the screen.

“…” Kiryu frowned. “Who the hell is ‘Bommer’.”

“Ah, didn’t someone named ‘Bommer’ participate in the Fortune cup?” Carly asked, Jack nodding more out of a reactionary response than anything.

“I didn’t even duel him, and he sends me this!?”

Crow stared at the email Jack was looking at, somewhat jolted awake by the content. “ _If you do not acquire another method of fighting, then by your own strength you will die; visit me at this address_ \- Wait, what?”

“Hahahaha. Are you sure he’s not a bit late with the predictions?” Kiryu asked with a wry expression. “Maybe even  _two days_  late?”

“Oii oiiiiii…”

“Guys, this address is for a place in  _Peru_ ,” Crow interrupted, the others looking up.

“Eh?”

As he pointed toward the screen, there was little more to do than simply stare. The address was in Peru yes, there was no doubt about it.

However as they read the word ‘Nazca’ from the page, they found themselves falling into an uncomfortable silence that would remain as such until interrupted by a well placed phone-call from the kids.


	77. Taiyou

It was a stupid idea and they should never have even tried, he told himself for what was likely the hundred and eighth time that evening. It was bad enough that the vineyard had been struck by thieves as of late; in the dead of night the grapes seemed to almost be spirited away by an otherworldly source, and meanwhile any with livestock were finding issues of an entirely separate kind. The farms would not make a good profit this year.

To even think of leaving at such a time was ridiculous.

Yet here he was.

As Jinbei walked he thought over what Taro had tried to do, and where it had, in his opinion, gone wrong. He supposed it  _started_  with the idea of entering the tournament really. Summer had started and news had traveled, and while they were busy tending to the grapevines he held his poster to them with pride. ‘Just to try,’ he’d told them with a smile. ‘Just to see how far we can get!’

How far could they get on a beaten down D-Wheel shared between the three of them, in a tournament where auto-pilot was disengaged?

How far could they get without the funds to support themselves, to support the transport to Tokyo or the room and board during the event?

How far could they even  _hope_  to get, he thought bitterly, when all they could find were weak ‘normal’ monsters and useless speed spells and traps, thrown away by even the lower class?

His musings took him far along the roads outside the small farming village, to distant roads leading toward rocky hills. As he walked however, these musings were stopped by the sight of a car in the distance- a car which he realized, as he approached, had been struck with a flat.

“Aaaaaahn,” the owner- a rather well dressed young woman, he noted- sighed. “How am I supposed to deal with this?”

For a moment he was silent, standing a fair number of meters back. It looked like, from that distance, a simple flat after all; surely it wouldn’t be too much trouble to help right?

“Ah-” He swallowed, approaching with a somewhat nervous gaze. “Do you have a spare at all? I could probably replace it-“

“Aaaah? Really?!” Jinbei stiffened somewhat as the woman gushed, hurriedly popping the trunk. “I have one right here! Thank you so very much for this!”

H-Hey, she seemed a bit eager for this!

Then again, as he worked, it seemed she was like that overall; the woman, who claimed to go by the nickname ‘Ano-chan’, was a very openly cheery sort. She was from the mainland of Japan supposedly, staying in a cottage up a short distance from where they were now. ‘Why don’t you drop by for dinner?’ she’d asked as he finished up with the tire. ‘I could give you a ride to the bus stop as well if you like!’

For a moment he hesitated- truth be told he had no idea where he wanted to go at this point, or what he was going to do when he got there. As his stomach rumbled quietly however he found himself nodding. ‘Alright,’ he’d decided, smiling. ‘Dinner sounds nice.’

‘Ano’ did not say  _who_  would be eating when they got to the cottage.

Initially he’d seen nothing wrong. It was a well worn, almost traditionally built structure, almost like a hotsprings inn. The inside gave off a similar feeling of age, and as he noticed this it seemed to feel almost cold. “It’s nice,” he found himself saying instead, attempting to be polite.

“Isn’t it?” ‘Ano’ asked from behind him, Jinbei abruptly stiffening as a shrill ringing sound passed through his ears. And as he turned he stared with gradually widening eyes, watching as the very flesh seemed to melt from the woman’s form. As her skeleton seemed enlarge, the very structure of the building warping around them to make way for it. “ _I DO HOPE YOU ENJOY IT, heHEHEHEHSHSHSHSHSHSHS!_ ”

“A-Aaah…” He stumbled back, only to find himself falling off a ledge of wood-turned-stone. “AAAAAHHH-!” ‘Hands’ grabbed him, clean and white and locking around him as the enormous skeleton approached. Through his mind rushed a thousand old tales from elders and shrine priests, dozens of warnings for travel of the old days that had long since lost their effect. He stared at the ‘eyes’ of the beast before him, and at the many emaciated, headless corpses surrounding him. He stared, and with wide eyes thought to himself-

‘This is the end, isn’t it?’

His parents would never see him again. His friends would never see him again, and in the end it was likely they would never find his body.

This was the end.

_**HrrrRRAAAAAAAAAAAAH-!** _

Or was it?

Brilliant black flames seared the bones around him, and as Jinbei fell with a thud to the bottom of the corpse pit his eyes caught sight of a woman dressed in a yellowed yukata. Her hair was held up behind her, and before her she held a hand of duel monsters cards; and as she held them forward, she was accompanied by the monsters of the deck itself; ‘ROSE FLARE,’ she shouted, ‘ROSE BLIZZARD,’ she called through the air, and from her hand came a twister of fire and ice to push the monster back.

The skeleton did not go down so easily. Even against an enormous petal-winged dragon it did not fall, howling cries piercing the air; ‘look out!’ he found himself shouting when the beast moved to strike. ‘Behind you!’ he cried as corpses rose up from the woman’s blind-spot, only for her dragon to torch them on the spot. In the end the skeletal fiend was crushed into dust by the dragon’s feet, and around them the ruined cavern collapsed as well. It fell beneath the effects of rot and dissolved out of sight, revealing glimmering stars above and an empty wood around them.

For a moment, the woman stood in silence, her monsters vanishing as her cards were slipped away. And as she turned-

“Wait!”

The woman paused, turning back with cold eyes. “What?”

He hesitated, flinching under the glare. “I-” In the silence, it seemed the woman was prepared to leave regardless, and so he forced himself to speak. “Thank you,” he said honestly. “…That thing- what was-“

“A demon,” the woman responded almost bluntly. “What else?”

Jinbei stared, rubbing the back of his neck. “Ri-Right,” he muttered, shaking himself. “Well- you still saved me, right?”

She snorted. “Not because I was worried about  _you_. I just saw a monster- that’s all.” Er.

Right. “Okay.” It was getting fairly awkward, to say the least. “Well- I’m Jinbei,” he started, attempting to lighten the mood somewhat. “And I’m still thankful!” Though he wondered now, this woman standing before him- who was she? “What about you?”

The woman stared with narrowed eyes, and after a moment closed them over to speak. “…Aki,” she told him. “And you should go home,” she continued sternly. “Next time don’t follow strangers to their own.”

“I don’t even know where I am to be honest.” At this, Aki paused from where she had again turned, frowning. “I was just trying to get as far from home as possible, really.”

Aki’s response was to regard him with an almost cautious look before snorting, taking a seat on the ground. “Hn. Fine then,” she decided. “I’ll sit with you until morning.” AH-

“M-Morning!?”

“Most demons act under the light of the moon,” she explained, pointing up to the full one that was lighting the sky. “You’ll be better off waiting here than trying to travel.”

“Er.” He swallowed, almost wondering if it would be worth it to argue before ultimately deciding it wasn’t. If they were going to sit, they were going to sit, he supposed. “So,” he awkwardly began. “Where are you from-“

“I’d rather not say.”

“Er- Any family?”

“Rather not say.”

“Aha.” He coughed, going silent a moment before trying again. “What you did with the cards- that was pretty cool, huh?”

Jinbei soon decided, given the fierce glare he received once he tried that particular conversation starter, that waiting in silence was probably for the best.

And silence was exactly what they were left in for almost an hour in fact- at which point, from far in the distance, they saw an approaching light. A light that moved too quickly for the fires of spirits, which was too clear to be an illusion of any sort. A light from an old, worn out bulb that from even this distance he recognized, the teen standing with wide and disbelieving eyes.

“No way,” he murmured, Aki as well standing. “Taro! Yoshizo! Ah-” Jinbei turned, watching his momentary companion move to walk in the opposite direction. “Aki?”

“There’s no use in me being here any longer,” she told him flatly. “You’ll be fine.”

“You could at least meet them though!” he protested, the woman fixing him with a scowl in response. “Er.” Right, this was the one who took down the skeleton monster- “…Please?”

There was no time for her to decide- the bike arrived and with it two others, the one on the back of the vehicle hopping off with a grin. “Jinbei!” he shouted, grinning. “We finally found you!”

“What are you doing out in the middle of nowhere,” the driver added, “It took ages to-” He froze, and as his friend followed his gaze toward Aki, Jinbei coughed.

“Hey! This is Aki,” he started, looking to the ruins of the ‘demon’s lair’ behind him. “She, uh.” Another cough. “She just saved my life.”

“Saved your life?” “From what,” the taller of the duo joked, “A swarm of bats?”

Oh if only. “Try a giant flesh eating skeleton.”

The grins fell with Jinbei’s words, and as Aki looked over them with a dark expression, he continued.

“I’m serious,” he told them. “I nearly died.”

There was an odd sort of silence after that, his friends slowly turning to look at each other in an almost questioning way. In the end as they looked back, they nodded. “We’ll believe you,” the shorter started, “But…”

“You got attacked by a ‘demon’?” the other asked, staring with wide eyes. “Then how-“

“Ah, it was her!” Jinbei exclaimed, gesturing to Aki as the woman stiffened. “It was incredible! She could summon the spells and monsters from cards as though they were real!”

“Monsters and spells?”

“You used them to fight?” the tallest of them questioned, only to pause when Aki continued to fix them with a look of growing rage. “Er-“

“That’s pretty cool!”

Aki frowned. “Cool?” she asked, narrowing her eyes almost in confusion. As though she had expected Jinbei’s reaction to merely be one of false gratitude, a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.

However, the young man nodded. “Yea! Oh- I’m Taro by the way,” he told her. “And this is Yoshizo-“

“Yo!”

“But yea! That’s really cool, if you can do that!” Taro continued with a grin. “Being able to help people from stuff like that- it’s a really great power isn’t it?”

Aki merely snorted. “Hn! So you say.”

At this, the others blinked almost with bewilderment  Jinbei trading a glance with his friends before turning to face Aki. “Hey- have you visited any neighboring shrines about these ‘demons’ at all?”

Shrines? At the quizzical look they received in response, he continued.

“I bet that they’d be able to lend a hand when it comes to fighting those things, right? I mean-” He coughed, looking back to the others. “We’re not much, really. So-“

“What Jinbei means to say,” Yoshizo cut in, “Is that we’re not ‘demon hunters’ or priests or anything!”

“Yea- we’re just village kids, looking to duel!” Taro laughed, blinking as Aki snorted in response.

“Hn. ‘Dueling’,” she muttered, the others trading still more confused expressions. “Keep your advice to yourselves,” Aki grumbled, starting toward the woods around them. “And next time,” she added, glancing back toward Jinbei, “/Don’t/ trust people you wouldn’t find on these roads. They probably aren’t people.”

“Er-” Without another word Aki left them, and, not entirely sure of what else to say, they allowed her to do so without interruption. “Will do!” was the last thing he said to her, before the scarlet-haired woman vanished between the trees. With nothing else to say, she disappeared entirely.

With no other reason to stay, the three drove back home.

By the time they came to the hills overlooking their village, the sun was beginning to rise. Scarlet and gold could be seen in the distance, and as Taro and Yoshizo shared with him their plan of attack for the tournament- the plan that could work, the plan that could, just maybe, get them through the preliminary rounds- he found himself glad that they had found him. Glad that he had friends that were such fools to try the ‘impossible’, where no one else would.

He supposed in the end that if he had friends with as much ‘common sense’ as him, nothing would ever happen in the world.

The sun rose over the horizon, and with it they vowed to do all in their power to ‘make it’. ‘ _We’ll name ourselves that,_ ’ they decided. ‘ _Taiyou- the sunrise_!’

…And as it seemed, they would not be the only ones watching this sunrise.

Not at all as distant as one would expect from them, a woman in a yukata stolen from a clothesline would sit, holding her deck of cards as summoned monsters sat around her for company. This was not the first time, she mused, that someone- or even ‘something’, if one considered the spirits of the dead as such- had told her to seek assistance from a shrine, or from the spiritually sensitive who attended to them. It was not the first, and at the time she left the three duelists, she had told herself that it would not likely be the last either.

And yet as she sat there and looked to the rising sun, she found herself looking to her partners and asking-

“Should I?”

In the end, only she could answer that.


	78. Chapter 78

They had three weeks before the start of the tournament, and after much consideration it was decided that the first of them would be used to deal with the matter of Bommer’s e-mail. He point blank refused to say more over the computer much to Jack’s annoyance, and so while he booked two tickets with a scowl, the others sighed.

“Well,” Carly had decided, “At least we’ll have the chance for some touring, right?” As she said this, her eyes drifted toward where Kiryu was sitting in silence, his fingers tapping the bone flute around his neck as he stared off toward the wall. “Kiryu?” she asked, the man in question turning.

“Mn?”

The others as well looked toward him, and Carly pressed on. “You’ve been really quiet since we found out the address was in the Nazca plains,” she observed almost uneasily, the tapping only briefly stopping.

“Nazca,” he started, hesitating for a moment. “That’s where the Giant glyph is, isn’t it?”

Briefly the others were silent, trading almost worried glances. Eventually however, Carly nodded. “Well, technically that’s where  _all_  of them would be, right?”

Another short bout of silence, and still Kiryu stared toward the wall. “In a sense, it’s like a grave marker, wouldn’t you say?”

There was no answer to that, not for some time. The others in the room, or at least those who knew, immediately grew stiff, looking to another with worried eyes.

It was some time before the silence was broken again, but when it was, it was Crow who did so. “We’ll all go,” he decided, watching as Kiryu turned to fix him with a somewhat bewildered gaze. “Bruno can look after the others while we’re gone; we can afford a break right?”

Kiryu didn’t ask what brought Crow to this conclusion in the end. The young man left to busy himself with gathering the funds for two cheap plane tickets soon after that, leaving the matter of ‘babysitting duties’ to be given out by Kiryu himself. In a sense it was better that way though; for as Crow made the arrangements, the worry that had risen with Kiryu’s almost weary question of a ‘grave marker’ only increased.

He had watched his friend confuse the identity of the deceased with a ‘god’ once before.

He would be damned if he was going to risk it happening again.


	79. Chapter 79

“Didn’t think we’d be seeing these again so soon,” Jack murmured as they drove.

Crow, for his part, only nodded. The plains of Nazca’s geoglyphs were arid and dry, ‘framed’ almost by highways and low mountains. If one drove far enough in fact, they would encounter sparse greenery in the mountains; however their own goal, turning off the highway, was something else.

“Ahhhhh- Did we just drive over Ccarayhua?” Carly asked almost in shock as they took the highway’s exit, looking back to where the geoglyph’s tail was rather abruptly cut in two by the large road.

Kiryu snorted, focusing on the road ahead. “It’s not like everyone else knows what’s underneath it, right?”

An awkward silence settled as they nodded, and with renewed focus they turned to search for Bommer’s home. With the vastness of the desert however, it would not be difficult to locate in the end; as one of the few structures standing among the geoglyphs, it was rather obvious in fact, something they evidently had in common with it given the ‘welcoming party’ so to speak.

Bommer was there, along with two others as it seemed; children, between Nico and West’s ages. “You made it,” he greeted as they stopped their bikes, both children watching them curiously. The youngest in particular looked to Jack in what was likely awe- a not so surprising thing, given the ‘duel king’ status.

The majority of them nodded- Jack, however, addressed the matter of why they’d arrived almost instantly. “What gives you the right to send that sort of invitation to begin with?” he challenged, looking to him with narrowed eyes.

The children flinched, but Bommer himself merely nodded, his smile fading. “I had a feeling that would be the first thing you asked,” he sighed, shaking his head. “Here- I’ll explain inside,” he continued, gesturing for the group to follow him into the house.

With little else to do, they would do just that. The home was amazingly simple, though not in the shack-like manner of a ‘Satellite Lean-to’, or a hut. It was clean, and one floor, with a room for the beds and computer, and two others; the kitchen and bathroom respectively. They were a family that didn’t spend much, if any, of their  time indoors afterall; they had little need for anything else, or so they claimed.

Seated around the table, they listened as Bommer explained. ‘I had a dream,’ he began clearly, seeming to almost almost gauge their reactions as he went. ‘A dream that until a few days ago, I was hesitant to believe.’

A dream of  _fire_ , or so it went. Supposedly Bommer had been having this dream for a number of days in fact, only ‘clearly’ seeing the figure in them recently.

‘Your dragon appeared, coated in flames,’ he warned seriously, Jack frowning and listening in silence. ‘And from those flames came your end.’

Jack of course, snorted at that- how did that in any way make a prediction?

Bommer in response, regarded him with an admant stare. “I don’t believe this dream was a coincidence, Jack.”

“Really?” he asked, almost huffing in response. “Then how do you explain pulling me out here for a dream?!”

“It’s not just a dream!” came a protest from the side, the source flinching somewhat when they turned her way.

Bommer frowned. “Annie- Didn’t I tell you and Max to wait outside?”

The girl looked to the ground, flushing somewhat in response. “Yes,” she admitted quietly, before looking back up with a swallow. “But it’s not just a dream! And he almost didn’t call for you too,” she added, looking away. “Max and I- we spent a long time trying to get him to send that e-mail!”

While Crow and Carly traded glances behind the others at that, both Kiryu and Jack merely regarded the girl with a flat stare. It was Jack, of course, who spoke however, showing no ‘mercy’ if such a thing was even required here. “And what about it makes this so important then?” he demanded. “Explain yourself!”

“Jack,” Bommer warned lowly, the blond briefly turning his glare back toward him before falling silent.

In the absence of the powerful voice, Annie thus took a deep breath to explain. “This place- not just the geoglyphs,” she clarified with a swallow, “But this entire plain, is filled with spiritual power. Even just living here you start to notice things, things that no one else does,” she continued shakily. “That’s why we built the shrine here in the first place,” she added, the others turning.

“A shrine?” Kiryu questioned almost dully.

Annie nodded, and this time it was Bommer who explained.

“To pacify the Earthbound Gods,” he told them, ignoring their initially shocked reactions. “To calm them while they sleep; it’s their rage against humanity that fuels their power,” Bommer went on, “And the less reason they have to detest us, the less reason they have to repeat their efforts.”

Kiryu snorted. “Tch. Futile,” he muttered, looking away.

“Is it?” Bommer asked, standing from the table. “Here then- I’ll show you both it and the track.”

As the others moved to follow him, they stared, almost confused. “‘The  _track_ ’?” Crow repeated, eyebrows raised. “You have a dueling track out here?”

“You’re expecting me to duel then?” Jack questioned, Bommer briefly looking back to them as they left the house.

For a moment he paused, before nodding. “Perhaps,” he admitted, continuing on toward the shrine. It was not far from the home, really; and much like the house had been, rather difficult to miss. “I built this soon after returning here from the Fortune Cup,” he explained as he walked, though never entirely touching upon exactly why. “My village was destroyed by efforts tied to the war between the Signers and Dark Signers,” Bommer continued, “And I’ll do anything to keep that from happening again. The shrine,” he went on, the others studying the small carved step pyramid with vague interest, “Is only secondary to keeping them pacified however.”

“Secondary?” Kiryu questioned, yet again appearing to be the only one to see a seeming flaw in the design. “And what’s the primary method then?”

“Dueling!” Max cheered, the group turning as both he and Annie ran forward. Max for his part gripped a deck tightly in his hands, a fact that Jack seemed to regard with at least a little bit of something other than the agitation he’d held since arriving.

The others were not so focused on the deck as they were his words however. “Dueling does?” Crow asked, looking almost owlishly from Max to Bommer. “But how would that do anything?”

“Mnnnn. Come to think,” Carly murmured, closing her eyes in thought, “I heard that there was a recent uproar over one of the Nazca lines being outfitted with the accessories of a D-Wheel track.”

“The line  _itself_?” Kiryu hissed, attention snapping back to Bommer as the man nodded.

“Of course,” Bommer responded almost casually. “More precisely, the track of the most agitated god, the gian-“

“You turned it into a _ **track**_!?” he snarled, his friends stiffening in silence as the necromancer stared almost questioningly to the culprit of the act.

Bommer’s only response was to nod.

And as for Kiryu, the man gave an almost broken laugh. “A track,” he ‘chuckled’, shaking his head. “You-” He choked on his own words, turning on his heels back toward the house. “I don’t want anything to do with this,” he growled lowly, leaving Bommer with an almost demonic chill in his eyes. “Do what you will.”

“AAH- K-Kiryu!” Carly shouted, looking back to the others. Jack seemed little more than shocked; Crow for his part almost torn, as though wondering exactly who was in the right. In the end, looking back to where Kiryu had vanished, she sighed. “I’ll go talk to him,” she told them, running of.

“Ah- I’ll come with!” Annie started, explaining as Carly turned to her in confusion. “He doesn’t know everything about the track and shrine- it might help to explain, right?”

Carly looked as though she wasn’t entirely sure that would be the case, but nonetheless she nodded in agreement. As they left, the youngest of the Peruvian family almost shyly tapped the side of Jack’s arm.

“Mn?” he turned, raising an eyebrow as Max held up his deck.

“I- I was wondering,” he stuttered somewhat, looking to the man with awe. “If you could maybe give some advice on my deck…”

Perhaps in the end, the idea of a duel was not so outlandish after all.


	80. Chapter 80

There were things that could be forgiven, and there were things that crossed so far beyond the line that they simply couldn’t be argued any more; circumstances so far gone that there was nothing that could be done in response.

This in the end, was one of those things, and as Annie and Carly both tried in vain to calm him, he found himself questioning it nonetheless. “WHY?” he snarled, not caring if he scared the child before him. “Why would you make something like that a ‘duel track’, WHY?!”

“It was to calm-“

“AND WHY THAT ONE?” he questioned louder, falling silent only to await a response.

Annie swallowed, clinging one of her arms. “It- There’s a shaman who lives in the foothills nearby,” she began, attempting to avoid the pitfall of averting her gaze. “He told us that the best way to pacify the earthbound was to convert  _that_  glyph specifically-“

“Well then where is this ‘ _shaman_ ’?” he demanded, fists clenched tight. “How about I question him myself, if he knows so much about this!”

“K-Kiryu,” Carly laughed, hesitantly reaching out to grab his shoulder. The man paused briefly, glancing first to Carly, and then to the quivering girl before him. For all her clarity of tone, it had not helped Annie’s fear after all. And though his expression still remained as sour as before, his gaze softened nonetheless.

“Tch.” He moved to walk back in the direction of the shrine, scowling. “You just don’t understand,” he growled, ignoring the stares toward his back. “You  _can’t_  understand!” he emphasized, the bones of his nearby bike rattling in anticipation.

Yet as Annie and Carly both looked to him, they couldn’t help but gain a sense of despair rather than anger from his words. Rather than arguing they thus left him to walk back toward the step-pyramid shrine, sharing an uneasy look and following after.

“Hey!” Crow called from the steps as they approached, Max sitting nearby with his brother. As he came close they could see a fairly severe expression over his face, prompting confusion in the others. “You guys missed one hell of a ‘show’,” he murmured to them, Kiryu in particular regarding the phrase with suspicion.

“ _Show_?”

Crow shrugged. “Hell if I know,” he muttered. “I don’t think any of us have a clue what just happened, but Jack stormed off in a huff after, and-” As he said this the sound of an engine came back over the air, the others turning. “-And,” he coughed, shaking his head, “It looks like he’s back. OI!” Crow shouted, Kiryu narrowing his eyes further. “Oi Jack, Kiryu’s back!” he called out, receiving no response as the Wheel of Fortune came to a stop. “Uh.” He frowned, and with still suspicious eyes the others moved somewhat closer. “Jaaa _aaack_?”

He ignored them all, walking steadily toward the shrine. “Ah, Jack!” Carly shouted, running over toward him. As she moved however she was still ignored, and Kiryu stiffened.

“CARLY,” he warned, any bones on his person shooting forward to pull her back. “ _THAT’S NOT HIM_!”

“NgH-“

“GET DOWN!”

As Crow shouted this, Carly was barely pulled back from where Jack had been moving, lightning crashing through the sky without warning. It struck the very shrine grounds as the others ducked for cover, and looking up toward the light they could see Jack’s silhouette but barely. “Ah- J-Jack!” Carly shouted, pulling her self up as Kiryu’s skeletons fell to the ground. “JACK!” she shouted louder, rushing toward the shrine’s top.

“Shit,” Kiryu muttered, forcing himself to his feet. “What the hell is going on?”

“I don’t know, I’d have thought this was your area,” Crow responded lowly, running to follow Carly to the top. As quickly as he reached where she stood, he forced himself to stop, gawking at the very same thing that she looked to now. “Ooooohhhhh fuck,” he hissed, the others soon coming up behind him.

Looking down to the enormous hole and cavern below them, stairs of seemingly ‘natural’ origin leading downward, Crow’s words couldn’t have been more fitting. With the obvious absence of the one who had stood there moments before however, there was only one thing to do now.

“What a wonderfuly  _convienient_  shrine this is,” Kiryu spat, starting downward as the others moved to follow. “I’m going to have a nice chat with this ‘shaman’ after this.”

For the sake of the more worrisome issues of the moment, Bommer and his siblings chose not to argue against that.


	81. Chapter 81

The stairs collapsed before they reached the field of course. It figured really, and the fact that they were quite literally right in front of the field did not help.

Looking down didn’t either to say the least, and as Bommer held is siblings close Crow voiced his distaste all too clearly. “Dammit all,” he hissed, looking over to the field with an expression of near disgust. “Can’t you do something about this Kiryu?!”

Kiryu for his part stiffened, turning on Crow with a scowl. “What the hell makes you think I can do anything about this??” he snarled back, the duel below them continuing as a half possessed Jack played right into the flaming spirit’s hands. 

“I dunno, maybe the whole ‘spirits and demons’ things?”

“I make BONES move,” he snapped, “THERE’S A BIT OF A  _GAP_  BETWEEN THAT AND EXORCISM!”

“AAAAAAAH- JAA _AAAACK_!” Carly shouted in the meantime, “WAKE UP!!!”

“Mn?” Evidently the sound of his friends squabbling and Carly’s cries were enough to do that. “What-” Jack’s confusion was quickly replaced with horrified rage as he took in his surroundings, his eyes soon snapping to the others. “AH- OI! What’s going on here!?”

“ _Well_ , I don’t know,” Kiryu drawled sarcastically, “Why don’t you tell us?”

“I ASKED YOU FOR A REASON DIDN’T I!?!”

“And you think we know any better?” Crow retorted, Carly yet again proving to be the ‘pacifying’ force.

“You got possessed Jack!” she shouted, pointing toward the flaming imp. “And now that thing says he’s going to use you to summon an Earthbound God!”

“A- An earthbound?!”

It was the imp who spoke this time, cackling loudly. “ _Hehehhnhnhhn! Not just any ‘God’,_ ” he laughed, “ _The greatest of Gods! You may have broken through my little spell_ ,” he continued with a leering grin, “ _But that doesn’t matter! You forged the deal, and now you’ll see it through_!” the imp sneered. “ _And your body will make the perfect host for my master!_ ”

“My  _body_!?” Jack questioned, fists clenching with rage. “LIKE HELL!”

“ _Oho~_ ” The flaming imp chuckled, twirling somewhat on the spot. “ _What an accurate choice of words! You have no say in this now though!_ ”

Perhaps not.

However that did not stop him from trying- and as Jack announced loud and clear to his opponent, there was nothing that would douse his ‘burning soul’.

“Burning soul,” Bommer murmured as the duel progressed, the others turning for a brief moment.

“Another thing from your ‘shaman’?” Kiryu asked dryly, Bommer not even shifting his gaze from the battle below.

“The Crimson Devil is the oldest of the Earthbound,” he murmured, voice so quiet that it seemed he was speaking more to himself than any other. “It was sealed long before the others, locked with so much power that it couldn’t even choose a host in the same way as them.”

“And that power was?” Crow ‘asked’, finding himself already guessing at the answer.

“The power to channel the entirety of the Crimson Dragon through his body,” Bommer responded. “‘Burning Soul’.”

A soul which Jack no doubt had within him. ‘REVEAL YOURSELF,’ he taunted his opponent’s master, pulling forth a strategy unlike what he had ever used before. ‘IF YOU’RE SO POWERFUL ‘RED DEVIL’ THEN REVEAL YOURSELF NOW!’ he roared, and in but a few moments he would find himself answered.

Rumbling seemed to split the air itself as stone cracked and fell, blowing forward and threatening to knock all before it into the pits below. Pits from which serpents of red and black began to rise, as if to frame a greater being. As if to frame the holes of stone that were developing now, only for those present to realize in horror that what the stone fell away to reveal was naught but an eye. The Crimson Devil was rising, and it was far more than they had ever thought.

He was rising before them and if they were to stop it now, they would need a power far greater than their own. ‘ _You’ll burn in the flames of your own anger!_ ’ the imp taunted, only for the rumbling voice of the Devil himself to join him. ‘ _You’ll burn and from your ashes the end of the world will arise!_ ’

‘ _ **There is not a card in your hand or deck that can defeat me,**_ ’ the Devil laughed, rubble falling from the ground.

Yet if anything, Jack found himself standing even stronger as those threats arose. “You say that you’ll use me to end this world?” he ‘asked’, spitting in the face of the monster before him. “EVEN MY ASHES WILL SERVE AS A BARRIER AGAINST YOU!” he roared, and as if to grant that wish flames seemed to appear over his hand. Flames which did not even begin to slow down Jack’s movements as he brought his arm forward- as the marks of the Crimson Dragon shone a brilliant read through the room, golden red flames leaping from behind the man.

The familiar to the devil quaked with fear before him, and seemed to almost be crushed by the growing presence of the dragon alone. Jack’s eyes gleamed a brilliant red, and as he threw his hand forward the fires surrounding him seemed to snap at the Devil, grasping it tight and pulling it toward him.

“You wanted a body?” he taunted, eyes wide with rage. “You’ll become sealed in one then! I’LL TAKE YOUR POWER AND TURN IT AGAINST EVERYTHING YOU STAND FOR!” Jack snarled, the Devil cackling nonetheless as he was pulled forward.

‘ _ **IS THIS YOUR MASTER PLAN THEN?**_ ’ the demon howled, a grin upon his face. And though Jack seemed to pay his words no mind as he worked, those on the staircase found themselves looking to the beast with terror and confusion both. ‘ _ **IS THIS YOUR IDEA OF ‘HOPE’?**_ ’ he taunted, grin never once faltering. ‘ _ **There’s a reason I chose YOU,**_ ’ he hissed, gaze ever locked toward the Signer of the Wings. With those words even Jack frowned, and as the Devil was pulled into the Red Daemon’s Dragon it cackled darkly. ‘ _ **After all,**_ ’ he sneered, eyes but briefly flicking toward those standing at the side. ‘ _ **We’ve taken one of you beneath our depths before, haven’t we?**_ ’

With those words the devil’s laughter filled the air, and in rage Jack’s ‘burning soul’ flared. “Save your words for a man who cares to believe such LIES,” he spat, holding his card forward. “Here and now, the King and the Devil will become one!  _YOU NO LONGER EXIST, DEMON_!” Jack announced clearly.

The light that resulted from the fusion of light and dark was unlike any other- and in fact, if not for the Crimson Dragon itself, it likely would have destroyed them all. As they were pulled from the depths the Crimson Devil had once been locked within, it was likely that most had no idea what it was which it referred to in his final moments really; what plans it had set in motion, and what hidden motives were now in play.

As Kiryu thought of the moment he had met the Devil’s gaze he felt nothing but intense terror as opposed to simple confusion however.

And when they landed, he wondered-

If what he thought was a gravemarker to his dear friend was far more than that.


	82. Chapter 82

In the aftermath of what occurred, it was no surprise that even with sundown approaching,  the concern over the Devil’s last words was such that they were still gathered near the ruined shrine.

However as Kiryu stared to the ground in silence, it was Bommer’s idea that a majority of them seemed to lean toward. “The shaman should know what he meant,” he started, only to blink as Kiryu’s immediate response was to go inside.

“Tch. I’ll stay here,” he grumbled, Crow and Jack stopped from going after him by a look from Carly and Annie both.

“Aha- That might be for the best actually,” Carly whispered to the others, Bommer nodding.

“Right; in that case, Max, Annie- you stay as well,” he told them, Max looking up with a start.

“What- But I wanted to play with the monkeys…” Monkeys?

Bommer merely looked to them both with a stern frown, and his brother sighed.

“Awwww alright,” he grumbled, moving to go back in.

“You need to sleep soon anyways,” Annie scolded as they went. “Come on.”

“AAAWWWW!”

“Hnhnhnnnn- Right. So then you three are coming with?” the man asked, turning to the others as they nodded. He moved toward where the D-Wheels were parked, grabbing his helmet from his own. “In that case follow me- it’s not a long distance, but we can’t drive the entire way. It’s better to get a head start while we can,” he added almost warningly.

There was no arguing that, of course. By the time the children had gone back inside the bike engines were already roaring with energy, waiting for Bommer to take off before following close behind.

Inside, Kiryu would watch the two kids move past to go to their room, giving them little more than a nod to acknowledge their presence. He would look outside toward where the D-Wheels had driven off, and wait there for a number of moments in silence, staring up at the vast expanse of stars above.

He would wait there for some time, fingering the flute around his neck as he did so. However eventually when the time was right, the last of the ‘bikes’ left behind would rattle away, the sound kept to a shuddering minimum for the sake of stealth. And as he drove, he would have but one goal in mind, making tracks for the no longer lit torches of the duel course far ahead. It was somewhat distant from the home, but that didn’t matter. The Devil had most certainly referred to Yuusei as ‘one of them’. As a prisoner within the earth, locked for all eternity. As another number among the earthbound, unable to escape. If that was the case, it was hopeless for him. If that was the case, peace had never been an option.

If that was the case, he decided with an iron will, he would make right what had gone wrong long ago, this time.


	83. Chapter 83

The foothills were only about fifteen minutes from Bommer’s home with the bikes, with the ‘Giant Glyph track’ sitting somewhere in the middle. If anything, reaching the foothills was the easy part of the journey, a fact that Bommer could not stress enough. Initially, there was no comment on how much longer it would take to get there; they started hiking up through the rocky walls of the hills, gravel crunching beneath their feet as they passed the occasional tree and shrub.

Even then it was only idle curiosity on Carly’s part that brought the question up. “So, this ‘shaman’,” she began, looking around them with wide eyes. “Where is he exactly?”

“I don’t know.”

What. “You don’t know!?” Jack thundered incredulously. “You just led us out here though!”

Bommer merely nodded. “This is as far as I know to come,” he admitted. “About now, however-“

_‘Kikihihihihihihiiii!’_

The group blinked, turning upward as a somewhat screeching ‘laugh’ came over the air. ‘Laugh’ was a rather inaccurate term however; a monkey, with gold fur on its front and black over its face and back, came to land upon the stones.

“Er-” The trio stared, Carly in particular finding the sight of the creature rather ‘out of place’. “A monkey?” Crow asked. “Out here?”

“It’s not very wooded,” Carly murmured, “I would have thought they’d live elsewhere.

“It belongs to the shaman,” Bommer explained, moving toward it only for the monkey to bound off a few steps and look back.

“ _KiiII! KIII!_ ”

“MN- We have to follow the monkey?”

A nod was Jack’s response. “He has the tendency to move around a lot; I could easily bring us to where he lives, but the chances of him actually being there are slim,” he explained calmly.

A brief moment of silence, and then-

“So we follow the monkey.”

“Right.”

“For who knows how long until we find this ‘shaman’.”

“Right.”

The three looked from Bommer to the monkey again, and in the end it was Crow who voiced his opinions on it. “Yea, no,” he decided bluntly. “That’s fucking  _stupid_.”

“Oh, you think so?” asked a fifth voice, Crow jumping back from the tree he stood beside quite frantically as a result.

“HOLY-” He looked up, as did the others, a majority of them almost choking. “Y-You-“

“Eh?” Carly blinked. “Have we met?”

The man up on the rocks far above them neither smiled or smirked in response to their confusion, merely crossing his arms as the monkey they’d been prepared to follow clambered over to join him. “Personally, I find his distracting any visitors useful when I’m meditating,” he seemed to sigh, before hopping down to stand among them. “Though admittedly, it’s still the quicker way to find me,” the robe-clad man decided, clutching a staff in one hand.

“So you’re the shaman then?” Jack asked, eyeing the seemingly hairless figure with growing suspicion.

The apparent shaman nodded. “I am- and I can see you’ve been busy,” he added, looking over the blond almost dully. He paused a moment, the others almost wondering if he had nothing more to say before being proven wrong- “Burning soul is meant for ‘pushing’ souls back, not ‘pulling’,” he ‘scolded’, not that his tone varied any more than it had from the start.

Jack blinked. “MN- Pushing?”

“Sealing the devil with your own soul, I should hope your will can keep a steady enough lid on that-“

“WHAT-!?”

“Though given your attitude I’m sure that won’t be a problem,” the man continued, moving to walk forward. “You’re late!” he went on. “I’ve been waiting for you two for months; it would have been better with a fourth however- I’m not sure if you’ll be strong enough as you are now.”

The Shaman’s words were not at all helping their confusion; trading only brief glances, they prepared to protest only for Carly to speak first. “Ah- C-can we get your name before you start telling us about things like this?” she asked uneasily, rubbing her arm. “It’s really strange, but it feels like we’ve met-“

“We have.”

“E-Eh!?”

At Carly’s evident confusion, the other two stiffened, Bommer merely observing in silence. There was only one reason for Carly to not recall someone who so obviously knew her by more than just a name; someone who knew of Crow and Jack, and more importantly another, ‘fourth’ person.

The shaman turned briefly, and if there were hair on his brows they would have been visibly raised. “I would have thought-” He paused, nodding. “I see. It seems an introduction is in order then. My name is Demak; not long ago, I was the Dark Signer under the god Cusillu. As for why I have been waiting for you,” he continued sternly, “I’ll explain inside; fifteen more minutes won’t kill anyone,” Demak ‘warned’, a glance toward the two Signers among them quickly rendering them silent.

Despite obvious anger at their apparent help, the two nonetheless nodded, following after the shaman as Bommer and Carly also followed. If it meant an explanation after all, then that was fine. And besides that, with all the other ‘Dark Signers’ who had revived, why couldn’t Demak be that ally that they needed now?

It was like he had said really; fifteen more minutes wouldn’t kill anyone, right?

. . . . .

Far in the distance, the spirits beneath the ground stirred, and as something sounded through the air the prisoner of the giant’s glyph heard not ‘the sound’ as expected, but instead that of rattling bones. . . . .


	84. Chapter 84

Had he been wrong, he wondered, to assume this duel track to be some sacrilegious spit in the face of a memory?

Kiryu stood at the very bottom of the Giant’s geoglyph, tapping the sides of still warm torch bearers and overall finding himself succumbing to the feeling that he was lost somehow.

The Crimson Devil had no reason to lie, and if he searched his memory it made more sense to believe the demon than it did his own hopes and wishes. He’d made a deal with the wrong sort of being; and someone had to pay the price for that, in the end. He’d fused the soul of the very one who had tried to save his sorry existence to a creature of darkness, and in the process exposed and chained him to the laws binding them.

‘The angriest of the gods’. Hah!

A harsh laugh escaped him, and if he bothered to pay attention he would notice there were tears in his eyes at that moment.

“Is that why they made this track then?” he asked aloud, small droplets of water falling to the arid sands at his feet. “Because of that last duel we never had?” he asked, with nothing but a blowing wind as his answer.

Like the glyph before him, he too was silent for a time, eyes half glazed as he stared across the ground.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I thought you had finally gotten peace, but instead you got the very opposite,” he forced himself to ‘admit’, voice cracking as he spoke. “I’m so sorry,” Kiryu repeated again, becoming unable to say anything more.

This track had never been the problem in the end, had it, he realized. It was as Bommer had said; meant to pacify, and calm. It was as Annie had attempted to say, a regular event, a ritual even. The torches were lit and the bikes started, from tourists or even his own, in the form of a dual-play against his brother in the sidecar. It wasn’t something that they did on a whim.

It was something they did because they /had/ to.

“Is that the key then?” he wondered aloud. He’d brought him down there in the end. To that place he didn’t deserve to go, to the depths of a realm not intended for the human mind.

So then, he thought to himself, surely the least he could do was break him from that prison, right? If at least to just move on to whatever plane of existence the dead were meant to pass toward. If at least that!

A final duel.

Was that the key then? The track, and his power, combining for one last ‘duel’ in a figurative sense?

As he looked to the track, he found himself deciding ‘yes’.

Strengthening a D-Wheel formed of rattling bones and forcing his power to saturate the ground beneath the wheels, to such an extent that even the torches at his side lit up with an eerie blue fire.

Yes. This was the key he decided, gripping the handles of the D-Wheel tightly. This was what he was meant to do.

The bones clattered loudly, and on skeletal wheels he tore forth along the track, the torches lighting as he drove. He would make things right this time, he vowed in silence. No longer would Yuusei’s soul be bound to the earth, no longer!

The torches lit themselves, and beneath the earth something stirred.

And thought to itself, with an almost curious, possibly even  _angry_  sort of feeling-

_‘This is not the right sound.’_

And then, with stronger emotion-

‘ _ **Light.**_ ’


	85. Chapter 85

If there was one thing to be said about being the one with the information to offer, it was the small bit of power that came with it. For as much as Crow and Jack both grumbled and demanded immediate answer they could do little in the face of the shaman for reasons that not even they could fully grasp, likely attributing it to simply not wishing to exert any force in the situation. As such, for all of their complaints, they did not truly begin to receive answers until they were seated around the table of Demak’s curiously large, yet simultaneously sparse home. Supposedly, it had been intended for a cult of many others, before he came to reside within it; a building so saturated with spirits of the dead that any attempts to demolish it, or remodel it without ‘permission’ received bizarre consequences, leaving it abandoned by the world and ignored as a whole.

This of course was something Demak had a bit of an edge over, and given his seeming relations with the many animal spirits in the area, he was having no issues with utilizing a small portion of the rooms for his on designs. This room in particular, seemed to be one of the largest; carved in part from the stone of the mountain itself, they sat on hand-woven cushions before a low-leveled table, watching and waiting as Demak took a seat before them.

“Now then,” he began, keeping a loose grip on his staff. “As I mentioned outside, you’re all fairly late; at this point I would think that the only thing remaining of Yuusei now is the memory of dueling-“

“WHAT?!”

At Jack’s outburst there was a loud ‘CRACK’, the wooden staff connecting rather abruptly with his skull.

“SFFF-” The man tensed, grabbing his head and looking back to Demak with rage. “What was that for!?”

“You interrupted,” he stated flatly.

“Of course I did!” Jack protested. “You don’t start conversations with things like that without explaining what’s going on first!”

The others nodded, Bommer becoming the next to speak. “Agreed; I don’t know who this ‘Yuusei’ is,” he admitted, “But frankly, that fact alone should say that we need more background on this.”

“Background which I was getting to,” Demak warned, the staff back in its position on his lap. “One of you will understand all too well what I’m referring to in a moment,” he added, gaze seeming to fix on Crow for a moment as he went on. “To understand exactly  _why_  your presence is important, you must first understand how this situation came to be; and to understand that,” Demak explained, “You must understand what Yuusei Fudou now _is_.”

At this point, his stare toward Crow was more than apparent, a fact which Crow himself was not unaware of. Visibly paling as Demak spoke, the teen’s eyes slowly widened in the revelation of his words. “No,” he whispered, shaking his head as a broken smile came over his face. “The- There’s no way that’s why, that’s-“

“Oiiii,” Jack growled, looking to his friend darkly. “What did you not tell us?!”

“I- I thought he’d moved on,” he half rambled to himself, not turning from Demak. With a hand on his head for seeming support he gave a cracked laugh, as though all that was happening were a dream and nothing more. “I thought he was at peace, it didn’t feel right to bring that up, not after everything, I-“

“Get on with it!” Jack snapped, the tension in the air pushing his temper far beyond its limits. “What is it-“

“He’s the GIANT,” Crow blurted, his head snapping toward Jack. “Yuusei was the giant, he was ‘Ccapac-Apu’!” he continued, shouts quieting as he looked back to the table. “I- I dueled against him, and then right after he lost Kiryu did something to him. I thought that he’d moved on after I beat Kiryu though, I-“

“How is this even possible?” Bommer cut in, eyes narrowed. “The giant is thousands, even  _millions_  of years old, it should be impossible-“

A crack sounded through the air, Demak slamming his staff against the ground as a call for attention. “AS I WAS SAYING!” the shaman sounded, voice not shouting as much as it felt that way, but merely stern and commanding in tone. “To understand the situation,” he repeated to them, “You must understand  _what_  the situation is, and how it came to be.

“We’ll cover first, what you are dealing with.”

“The earthbound gods,” Crow started, only to hiss as the staff cracked against his head. “OW-  _FUCK_!”

“Don’t interrupt,” Demak warned. “You’re correct however; the Earthbound Gods are what you’re dealing with, but they are not gods in the pure sense. Rather,” he continued, “They sit at the top of the category of demons; a true god exists through belief and donated power, offered through sacrifice of energy, or through the latent power in the land itself. The Crimson Dragon is one such ‘God’,” the shaman explained. “This is why you find his power rises only when necessary, or when such a thing as ‘Burning Soul’ comes into play. He has no solid form in this world otherwise; he’s a spirit, of the most powerful category.

“However the Earthbound  _can_  have solid form, and often do. This is because they take their power not through donation, though they  _will_  if offered,” he seemed to warn as an afterthought, “But for the most part, as you have witnessed already, the Earthbound Gods feed on souls.” He paused for a moment, as though expecting an interruption where there was none; he had the full attention of the four before him, and so he carried on.

“If the ‘Pure Gods’ sit at the top levels in the classifications of ‘spirits’, then the ‘Eating Gods’ sit at the top levels of ‘Demons’. They are creatures formed from a collective, initially of spirits twisted by the strongest, darkest of obsessions before devouring one another and absorbing those energies as their own. They are beings who gain power from the consumption of souls; and with the Earthbound in particular,” Demak added, “Beings who have been doing this for what does _indeed_  surpass the limit of a million years.

“They have long since gathered to the point of developing their own essence and personality; that alone is all that’s required to become a powerful demon, let alone a god. Technically they wouldn’t even be required to take in any more energy,” he told them with what could have passed as a shrug. “With the power they have now, these beings could easily exist as ‘pure gods’ alone. However that would mean removing what makes them ‘demons’,” Demak explained. “It would mean doing the impossible and ‘appeasing’ them entirely, and as creatures of such concentrated negativity that is more than impossible. What you are dealing with now is a God whose rage has only continued to grow, particularly during these moments when it is sealed in the depths of  _Hell_.

“And it is that sort of being,” Demak finally told them, “With which your friend ‘Kiryu’ tried to bargain with.”

“Eh- Bargain?” Carly nervously repeated, quieted as the staff smacked against her head next.

Rather than be bothered with the reminder of ‘no interruptions!’ however, Demak nodded, and continued on. “Your friend desired the revival of the recently deceased, and failed to realize who it was he was being offered that chance by; as an ancient and cunning god, Ccapac-Apu would have been fool not to take advantage of that.”

“A fool?” Crow repeated with a low snarl. “And just who’s side are you on then?!” he demanded, only to be answered with another loud ‘rap’ to the head.

“I said it would be fool of him to ignore it, not that it would be beneficial toward  _us_ ,” Demak responded coolly. “I’m not taking any sides; I’m giving you the facts. Stop. Interrupting.”

The redhead swallowed, but nodded in agreement nonetheless.

And so again, Demak continued.  ”Ccapac-Apu fooled his chosen ‘Dark Signer’ into forging a bond between himself and reality, using Yuusei’s very soul as a conduit; by sacrificing a small portion of power he formed a solid body which acted as a shell for them both. This,” he explained to them, “Would not be enough to bring about what we deal with now of course. What Ccapac-Apu started with was merely a ‘window’, an act of insurance if you will. As likely as it is that Yuusei believed otherwise, Ccapac-Apu’s will at that time would not have been enough to take the body as his own, even if he had been the one to make it. The human will is strong- you yourself demonstrate this,” he told Jack. “At this very moment, your soul is in fact the only thing standing between the Crimson Devil and reality.”

“I-” Jack blinked, going rather white with Demak’s words. “My soul- Are you saying that it’s going to possess me after all!?” he snarled angrily, giving an almost squawking roar when he was answered with a staff to the head.

“I already told you that your stubborn will is plenty to hold it at bay,” the shaman almost casually explained. “You just need to make sure that your descendants do similar,” he added, paying little mind to the slow and awkward glance Carly and Jack held with each other as a result.

“Aha- D-Descendants?” Carly squeaked under her breath, her voice so quiet that Demak heard nothing of it.

It was likely for the best in fact, given how off topic they would have found themselves if they addressed that.

“As I was saying,” Demak instead started. “Due to the power of human will, Ccapac-Apu was yet barred from taking a full hold in reality; Yuusei’s will to continue his existence was too strong. Thus, it would be required to wait until that will had dissolved  So he waited,” he told them. “Waiting until his will shattered to the point where he would willingly and most importantly,  _quietly_  accept death,” he spoke, easily catching the horrified expression that was now developing on Crow’s face. “You said you dueled him?” he asked, the teen swallowing in response.

His throat felt dry as he spoke, and for a moment he was silent, as though surprised that Demak was giving him the offer to speak at all. “I-” He nodded, trembling somewhat as he recalled the duel’s end. “That’s right. He gave me Stardust after that,” he continued, Jack looking to him with narrowed eyes as his friend went on. “He- He told me to save Kiryu for him, and that…”

As Crow trailed off, Jack shook his head, a scowl growing on his face. “No!” he insisted, fists clenched tight. “He wouldn’t give in like that!” he pressed, only to cut himself short as he looked at the expression Crow held.

Crow did not need to say anything, after all; the broken visage he held did that for him, rendering Jack unable to argue and the others unable to even speak.

Which meant, of course, that Demak was free to do so. “Ccapac-Apu would have ample opportunity to absorb Yuusei’s spirit within his being, while his emotions were in that state of disarray; there would be next to no risk of a challenge in response. The situation you have before you now,” the shaman warned, “Is that Yuusei’s spirit has now thus been a part of the collective that is Ccapac-Apu for nearly a full year. And among the form of that collective it is almost entirely likely that he is the only one aside from Ccapac-Apu itself with an identity to call his own.

“One  _cannot_  exist with the other,” he persisted, grip on the staff tightening. “So long as the other exists one will always fight against it if they can, not that such a thing would be so simple against a collective of _millions_  of years,” the shaman remarked in a stinging tone. “With the time you’ve taken to get here, I’ll be surprised if he recalls so much as his own name even!”

“THEN WHAT’S THE POINT?” Crow snapped, the limits of his silence breaking before even Jack’s did. “What are you trying to tell us!?”

“MUST I spell it out to you?” the shaman retorted in retaliation. “Did Bommer not tell you anything about what I told him? He was a duelist, was he not?” Demak asked, his eyes now blazing with rage. “And as a duelist, we gave him what little connection we could!”

“The duel track,” Carly murmured, Jack for his part scowling.

“And the  _shrine_?”

To their mild surprise, Demak’s response was to stare. “Shrine?” He snorted. “If there’s such a thing then it was entirely outside my knowing,” he responded, Bommer frowning at the excuse.

“But I thought that it was yours- ACK-” And at last it was Bommer’s turn to receive a blow to the head, the imposing man lightly rubbing the injured area as he hissed.

“If you built it, it was without my knowing. And if the Crimson Devil was involved, then recall the phrase ‘demonic possession’,” he went on, before turning his attentions back to the others. “As I had been saying; your friend was a duelist, was he not? Similarly, each of you are duelists, as is Kiryu Kyousuke. It is a bond that ties him to reality still, while tying him to you. The duel track, hopefully, has held that thread intact.”

“And that’s it?” Crow questioned, Jack as well growling.

“That’s all you have?” he snapped, a chorus of two ‘smacks’ following to silence them.

“I AM NOT  _YOU_!” Demak replied fiercely, the staff gripped still tighter in his hand. “I have no strong connections to him, same as anyone else native to this land. And if I had known there was a way to bring you here sooner, I would have taken it!” he added, Bommer for his part looking somewhat ill about the fact that he had either failed or been unable to mention that fact earlier on. “We have what we have,” he finished, voice quieting as the shaman calmed. “And it is better now than waiting longer; though admittedly,” he breathed, “If I could have called the former Dark Signer here himself, that would have been best. They _were_  quite close after all, and-“

“Ah- But…” Carly flinched as Demak turned toward her, the woman’s eyes briefly flicking over the staff before she continued. “But Kiryu  _is_  here!” she told him, watching as the Shaman’s expression of annoyance shattered.

“ _What_ ,” he hissed, quite resembling a deer in the headlights as the others nodded.

“That’s right,” Bommer elaborated. “He was present during Jack’s duel in fact. Unfortunately, with what happened he gained a bit of a grudge toward your ideals,” he admitted with a cough, “So he remained at home.”

“He-” Demak closed his mouth and stood immediately, adjusting the staff in his hands with such an urgent air about him that the others found themselves briefly shaken whilst their host made for the door. “We must leave now,” he stated curtly, his guests coming to their feet and trading looks of confusion in response.

“Leave?” Crow repeated, shaking his head. “Wait, but you still haven’t explained everything!” he protested, eyes somewhat narrowed.

“Why do we have to leave now?” Carly asked, “What’s wrong-“

“There’s no time,” Demak hissed, rushing out of the door and turning on the group with such speed that they very nearly ran into the staff. “How  _COULD_  you,” he continued, eyes wide with disbelief. “Of ALL the people to leave alone there, how could you even  _think_  to leave him there!”

“Wh- But what does that even have to do with-“

“I’VE EXPLAINED ENOUGH!” the shaman roared. “This is the one who has experience in raising corpses under his command!” he snarled, more emotion in his tone than had ever been thought possible. “The one whose powers were increased by Ccapac-Apu himself, and you don’t believe there was a reason?”

As Crow gave a broken laugh the teen shook his head, again gaining an expression of disbelief. “But he can’t do anything!” he insisted. “He can’t control spirits, he can only control bones, he-“

“An artist can use nothing but pencils all their life and master the technique, while their abilities remain non-existent in all other forms,” the shaman snapped back with rapid whispers. “Does that stop them from picking up a paintbrush to try?” In the moment of silence he had in response he slammed his staff against the ground, gesturing to the path behind him. “We leave now!” he insisted. “And if you’re lucky, then-“

Without warning a sound like thunder quaked beneath them, sending the dust itself a few inches from the ground and cutting Demak’s words short. For an instant the five looked down as if to discern the source of the rumble, only for a far louder noise to pull their attentions to the direction they’d come from almost a half-hour prior.

**_“NNRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHNNNNNNNNNNNN!”_ **

Crow swallowed as their attentions moved toward the slight shadow that seemed to have appeared against the night sky with the noise, barely finding the power to speak. “Demak?” he finally forced himself to say, throat dry and voice hoarse in the fear he experienced now. “What was _that_?”

There was no response to Crow’s words, not even so much as a rap on the head from his staff as had been done for most of the visit. Instead Demak’s only reaction to the great, moaning cry that had echoed far in the distance was to bolt off down the path toward the foothills base, leaving the others to follow as yet another thundering roar sounded over the air. Explanations would do them no good now.

The Giant had arisen once again.


	86. Chapter 86

It would have been impossible to miss the flames and energies leaping from the track of the giant, really. Or at least, it would have been to those with eyes for the dead; the fire that erupted behind him was like none the earth had ever seen, and as he proceeded about the track it exhausted him greatly.

He had to complete the circuit he told himself, jaw clenched as he drove through the fatigue.  He had to keep driving, for Yuusei’s sake!

He did not realize the thoughts of the being in the ground beneath him. He did not realize that the further he drove the brighter the ‘light’ for the collective below became, the looming threat moving ever closer. The fires blazed and the track came closer and closer to completion, clouds gathering above almost in preparation for the summoning. The D-Wheel skirted around the final ‘foot’, and as he came to a stop the final torches burst into flame.

Silence hung over the air. A tense silence, thick enough that it seemed the dust itself was held in place; and then as he stepped off of his D-Wheel a shudder passed through the ground, briefly shaking him where he stood.

“Sff-!” He hissed, throwing an arm in front of his face as dust blew back against it, looking forward just as quickly to look across the enclosed glyph. There was nothing, not for the moment. If anything it seemed that the quaking of the earth had been his only answer, as if to say he’d succeeded. For a moment a wash of relief seemed to have passed over the wind, an immediate sensation of success that did not originate from his own being.

A second rumble passed through the ground and whatever remotely positive emotions existed in his mind shattered, the man’s gaze snapping back to look toward the center of the earth as it cracked. As a fissure tore apart the ground, forcefully contained by the fires of the glyph. The earth blew away and an enormous, featureless hand broke free to slam against the surface of the desert plain, knobbly knuckles easily surpassing the size of Kiryu himself. As quickly as the first hand appeared the second rose upward, and as the enormous and shadowed figure rose, Kiryu’s horrified gaze followed it; watching as a some how slimmer, even  _taller_  form of the beast rose up, portions appearing almost to be formed of fabric. Yuusei’s hair could be recognized on the head of the beast; for all the lack of definition the shape of it was more than there, and whilst the monster stood it blocked the light of the moon itself.

It looked down with the chilling, sightless ‘eye’ of the god Ccapac-Apu. And in the instant that its gaze met with Kiryu’s own a fierce and moaning roar sounded over the air, the very force of the sound knocking him off his feet as a mouth held together by threads of black snarled in rage. _ **“RRRRNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”**_  Anger was the dominant power here. Anger, hate, and rage of the betrayed, and as Kiryu looked upward it felt as though he had already been crushed under the fist of the giant.  _ **“ROOOOoooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNN!”**_

“No,” he wept, the monster looming above and moving to strike. For an instant he bowed his head, unable to look at the beast before him. “ _YUUSEI_ -!”

_**“OOOOOOAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNN!”** _

“DAMMIT!”

The bones around him clattered, and as he bolted from the spot the ground he had sat upon seconds before shattered under the power of the Giant. And with the skeletons forming great weapons at his side, he looked up to the beast with watering and weary eyes. Why?

“Dammit, Yuusei.”

 ** _WHY_**?

“ _You were the one who was stronger than me._ ”


	87. Chapter 87

It didn’t take long before, even with the distance between themselves and the edge of the foothills base, they saw for themselves the enormous figure of the risen Giant.

“No,” Crow had started the moment it came into view, holding his head as he forced himself to look away. “No, no, no, DAMMIT!” he cursed, kicking the stones at the side and snarling unintelligible obscenities in his rage. “AFTER ALL THAT’S HAPPENED!”

“Tch. So we’ll be dueling again,” Jack muttered, only for Demak to shake his head whilst they continued the trek down.

“No,” he stated flatly. “The giant isn’t bound by the laws of the Signer-Dark Signer war any more,” he warned, “Which means there won’t be anything standing between it and the ‘quickest’ method this time.”

“The- The  _quickest_?” Carly asked, Bommer answering with his own guess.

“The most he’ll do is step on us if we try it,” he realized, Demak nodding in response.

“And that’s all he needs, the way you lot are.”

“WHAT?!” Almost on cue, Jack turned on the shaman. “Are you saying we’re weak!?”

“I’m saying you’re  _mortal_ ,” he retorted, turning a thoughtful look toward the blond nonetheless. “Though you should be fine with Burning Soul now that I think about it,” he murmured, the D-Wheels now coming into view.

Jack blinked. “Burning soul?”

“Provided you  _push_  and don’t  _pull_  this time!” the shaman added, walking quite deliberately toward Bommer’s bike and hopping up to stand just behind the seat.

“Er-” Bommer stared. “Demak, I don’t think this is the best way to travel-“

“It’ll do for now, trust me,” he replied. “Make way for the Giant, I’ll explain as we go,” Demak continued, the others finding themselves unable to question his words. Instead, each took to their own bike and revved the engines, tearing away through the hardened ground to charge after the apparently distracted monster in the distance.

Once they had, Demak made good use of Bommer’s D-Wheel screen for his explanatory warnings and instruction. “Signers,” he began, “Did not always wage their wars with card duels; if anything the war adapts to the most prevalent form of battle at the time and in the area! This iteration was fortunate to have chosen something as simple as a duel,” he continued seriously. “For the most part, the wars between them are far bloodier; in the previous battle,” Demak told them as they drove, “The dragons were channeled into reality, just as Burning Soul allows the Crimson Dragon to arise. It is that power,” he warned, “That you’ll need to use against this now!”

“AH-” Carly turned to protest, shaking her head. “But I’m not-!”

“You as well have the potential for that power,” Demak told her, shifting his grip on the staff as the various dangling stones upon it began to quiver. “You’ve been marked by one of the dark gods; and regardless of what you do, that mark remains,” he continued, shaking the staff somewhat as two charms in particular snapped off.

From the charms two spirits bolted forward, Carly and Crow briefly faltering as the spirits each landed upon the front of their bike. “GH- Give a bit of warning!” Crow snapped, the golden monkey spirit seeming to cackle with amusement.

At the front of Carly’s a black one of nearly identical shape stretched, the woman staring at it curiously. “Ah- Monkey  _ghosts_?”

“Mn! Don’t let their appearance fool you,” Demak warned. “These two are quite old; they’re more than mere animals now- it would be ridiculous to expect either of you to pull out the proper weapons for this battle on your own, but this will have to do for now,” he continued, looking toward the looming giant that they were coming dangerously close to now. And with a final gesture toward the duelists, he gave them his last piece of advice before they would be considered ‘in range’ of the Giant’s wrath. “The one with the wings will use Burning Soul; as for you two, let your mark and your instincts guide you!” he told them clearly. “Those spirits can’t act without a human to channel them; and I don’t have the time to explain how this works. Think of it not as possession,” he added, turning back upward as the Giant turned its attentions toward them. “BUT INSTEAD AS ARMOR!”

At those words the giant gave a howling roar, striking forward as the bikes swerved away from the attack. Yet with the suddenness of the blow they could not escape in time; and as they looked up in horror, they heard-

“HRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH-!”

The clattering of bones sounded above them, and the brunt of the attack was blocked by collected skulls and ribs charged and condensed with power. Even with all the power behind the bones however, the Giant’s fist easily scattered them- and in the resulting whiplash of energy their controller flew back, the other three pulling themselves to a stop in order to run to his side.

“KIRYU!” Crow shouted, Jack looking back as the monster’s attention was but briefly attracted by Demak’s own onslaught on the beast; the shaman’s power was indeed genuine, and as a beast who almost resembled an ‘anti-cusillu’ arose with him in battle the blond found himself realizing what Demak had meant by ‘battles of a bloodier sort’.

On the ground Kiryu coughed, struggling to sit up and even hold his eyes open. “Ngh…”

“You idiot,” Crow hissed, gripping the man’s coat and pointing toward the giant behind them. “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU’VE DONE?” he roared, only to cut himself short at the look of utter resignation Kiryu had as he looked back.

It was an expression of defeat; that was the first thing that came to mind. A defeated look that needed no words to describe, and an expression that, unbeknownst to them, was not unlike the one he’d worn during his earlier travels toward Houra-son.

The monster before them snarled again, and as the battle between the giant and the channeled spirit of earth Demak had with him waged across the plain, Kiryu turned this shattered gaze up toward ‘Ccapac-Apu’. “Y-Yuusei,” he started quietly, choking as Crow immediately pulled him forward by his coat. “NgH-!”

“That is NOT him,” he snarled, the others with him moving to prepare for battle themselves. “And we are not going through this again, GOT THAT?! THAT THING WAS  _NEVER-_ ”

“I KNOW!” Kiryu snapped back, shutting his eyes to block out the sight of the monster for a moment. And with the continued resignation that had bled through his words, Crow fell silent. “I know,” Kiryu repeated, shaking his head. “But he’s still in there,” he wept quietly, turning his gaze back up yet again. “And I can’t live with myself if I leave him like this.” As his friend moved back Kiryu forced himself to stand, looking up toward the giant with the same resigned drive he had from the start. “Even if I die-!” he roared, darting forward as the skeletons around them leaped into action once again. “HHHHHAAAAAAAAAA-HHH!”

The bones did nothing to even scratch the giant of course; if Demak’s own power was not enough, what hope did they have?

However as Kiryu had said, they could not let this deter them. They could not even momentarily hesitate with this, and with those emotions blazing in their hearts the signers were the next to charge, the marks of the dragon blazing upon their arms. With Jack, his arm again seemed to burst into flame, a red shine appearing in his eyes as the ‘Burning Soul’ overtook him. The Crimson Dragon for all his power however was yet dwarfed by the monster before them. For in the end, Ccapac-Apu had broken free of the limitations of their endless war, and in the end, the Crimson Dragon alone had never been enough.

‘ _Let the mark guide you_ ’, Demak had said. ‘ _Think of it not as possession, but as an armor_ ,’ and with those words in his mind Crow found himself  grabbing at the monkey he’d been lent and gripping only smoke, covering his right arm and finding himself granted a weapon not unlike the empowered fists Jack received through the Burning Soul. If he had the time to think on the impossibility in leaping to this height and distance, perhaps he would have realized that ‘armor’ was more than just protection here, but he did not.

Against the Giant, they could not afford that. “Ngh-!” Fires seared past Kiryu and for a moment he paused in his attacks, the others overtaking him to strike shadowed flesh. “What are you doing?” he questioned, receiving snorts in response.

“HM! You think we’re going to stand by and watch you face this thing?” Jack retorted, Crow flashing a weary grin as he clung to one of the monster’s knuckles.

“We’re not leaving you alone,” the red-head shotued to him. “Not this time!”

If there had been time for sentiment, Kiryu likely would have been struck silent by their words. As it was however he could only hesitate for a split second before launching another strike at the giant, bones piercing a minuscule portion of the face as it snarled in annoyance.

“I’m helping too!” Carly shouted from below, the monkey lent to her seeming to vanish into her very clothes to create an armor for her. “Even though I don’t know him well- even though I’m not that strong, I want to do something this  time!” she cried, rushing forward. “I want to help this time!” she shouted louder, and as she struck at the feet of the giant it seemed to stumble, if only briefly.

It was a moment of hope. After all, they did not have to ‘kill’ Ccapac-Apu, that in itself would be impossible. If they could simply snap Yuusei free of the monster’s thoughts, they would win. If they could get the monster to falter long enough for him to resurface, they would win. Kiryu was the first to shout out his name; and when Demak followed it became clear that to do so would not dehumanize their friend as initially thought, but in fact act as a signal with which to remind him of who he was. To make him realize that there was yet reason to live, to simply wake him up-!

“Yuusei!” Kiryu shouted, and the bones sliced against black skin.

“YUUSEI!” Jack and Crow both roared, blazing fists and misting limbs striking hard against their foe.

“Y-Yuusei!” came Carly’s own cry, and when she moved so did Demak, the attacks sending the head of the beast lolling back almost in slow motion before the creature paused.

Did they do it? they wondered for a moment, staring in silence. Did they dare to even ask?

The Giant’s head snapped back into focus and with a wave of energy with a force unlike they’d even seen or felt they were launched backward, only barely protected by a shield erected by Demak’s hand. The ground beneath them shattered upon their impact. Their bodies, immobilized in pain, were now half buried in a crater of their own creation, and as they looked up the only thing they could see in the place of the night sky was the enormous eye-like glyph of the giant’s ‘face’.

They could not move. The giant prepared his final attack and they could not move. Yet as he looked up along with the others, Kiryu found himself with a pained smile on his face nonetheless.

“I’m sorry, Yuusei,” he rasped, eyes closing over. “ _We tried._ ”

He waited for the inevitable blow, and above him the air rumbled, as if to mock their pathetic attempts to prevent it. Yet as time passed, there was nothing. The air stilled, and rather than crushing, or burning, he felt no different than when he had fallen. In fact, he felt somewhat better, opening his eyes and soon seeing why.

The giant stood, frozen- it stiffened, ‘mouth’ hanging open as some low and guttural sound began to grow in the back of its throat.

Without warning it snapped back, a wailing cry piercing their ears; the giant’s hands clutched at its head and despite its legs being half buried in the earth it managed to stumble backward as it trembled.

“ _ **oooOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-**_ ” The screaming seemingly had no reason. “ _ **AAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-!**_ ” It echoed through the air and lasted without pause, the giant appearing to fight against itself as the others slowly forced themselves to stand and watch.

“What’s happening to it?” Kiryu found himself asking, the others helping each other up behind him. Carly was holding her head, staring to the ground in some unexplained shock as Jack helped her to stand. Demak himself was using his staff for support, while Bommer and Crow struggled to pull themselves to their feet as well.

Kiryu’s question did not receive an answer, and in the darkened moonlight the monster continued to rage against some unseen force.

And within the beast, a battle of another sort occurred. For in addition to the ‘sound’, that ‘thing’ that had been so coveted, something had snapped during this battle, something familiar. Something important. Something that turned against the very thing he was doing now, for as he’d thrown his ‘foes’ to the ground he realized-

‘ _These people-_ ’

Rumbling seared at the back of his mind yet despite the pain it prompted him to think harder, to cling to this thought he had developed.

‘ _These people are…_ ’

The rumbling increased but without its allies there was little it could do as he followed the thought, pulling at it and all that came with it. At battles which he’d taken place in at their side, at names and faces and cities of rubble, waters of filth, and the more he pulled at these thoughts the more he realized-!

‘ _I don’t want to kill these people._ ’

He pulled the memories back and when one became clear the others followed almost instantly. The rumbling in his mind pulled harder, but the more it did so the more he pulled back. Back to the memory of ‘Satisfaction’, back to the memory of ‘Satellite’, of ‘Old Momentum’, and above all, the memory of-

“ _ **rROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNN-**_ ”

‘ _Yuusei_ ’. He had a name- he had a face, a body, a life-

 _ **‘But you died remember?**_ ’ the rumbles taunted, Yuusei merely ‘appearing’ within the mind in a form that reflected as much in response. The clothes he’d worn in death, the bleeding hole at the back of his skull, glazed eyes staring forward despite their awareness- he faced the darkness with growing rage and determination, and the darkness, in turn, stared back.

‘ _ **What use is there?**_ ’ the ‘God’ taunted, and as he did so Yuusei found himself closing his eyes in silence. ‘ ** _You are_ dead _, there is no hope for you! Your soul lies with me now, and has forever been marked by my hand!_** ’

Yuusei merely hovered in the darkness, silent.

And the god, feeling that his words were again having some effect, pressed on. ‘ _ **You are a ‘demon’ now,**_ ’ it sneered. ‘ _ **And that is all you’ll ever be now; so why bother with such futile resistance?**_ ’

For a moment, Yuusei remained still silent.

As he opened his eyes however, he looked to face the darkness and the markers covering it with eyes of solid blue himself. With skin darker than the blackest coals, and loose robes replacing that which he had worn in death. And with the change came a steadying will, his mouth opening for him to speak. ‘ _ **True,**_ ’ he realized, facing the darkness without fear. ‘ _ **I’m not human any more. However,**_ ’ he continued steadily, his presence slowly growing to surpass that of the darkness around him, the blue markers of what he faced shrinking in size as ‘Ccapac-Apu’ began to panic, ‘ _ **Even if it means becoming a demon for all of eternity,**_ ’ he concluded, ‘ _ **I will never allow you to hurt my friends!**_ ’

‘ _ **BUT IT IS POINTLESS!**_ ’ the ‘god’ protested, the form of its darkness so small that as Yuusei lifted his hands the being took up as much space as an ‘apple’ would have in memory. ‘ ** _What use is there in protecting those who will die in an instant compared to the lifetime of a GOD?!_** ’

‘ _ **There is**_ **every** _ **reason,**_ ’ he responded without thought, his voice calm and certain of his decision. ‘ _ **And when those friends are gone, I will extend my protection to those that follow. And when those that follow are gone, I will protect those after that. No matter what you say, you cannot change my mind,**_ ’ Yuusei concluded, bringing the shrouded ‘blob’ close  to look it in the ‘eye’.

The former god trembled in his hands, and in an instant, his former host’s teeth bore through its every being, tearing the shadow open like softly bruised fruit until there was nothing left.

‘ **I will forever protect this world**.’

The shadows of his mind rumbled, and with no others to challenge the position of consciousness, the screeches in reality halted. From the bottom up the giant seemed to scatter, collapsing in upon itself to leave nothing behind.

Or was that the case?

Those below squinted upward at the small figure of black which floated in the air, its form largely blotted out by the finally revealed and comparatively blinding form of the moon. “It’s gone?” Jack ‘asked’, still holding Carly close as the two looked upward.

And as the others stared as well, Crow’s eyes widened, the figure seeming to walk and stumble through the air to approach them. “No,” he realized, freezing in his shock, “It’s-“

“Yuusei!” Kiryu shouted out, forcing himself to rush forward as the figure landed upon the ground. He hesitated only for a moment, grimacing as the pain of his injuries shot through him before running forward regardless. “Yuusei!” he shouted again, stopping to stand almost awkwardly before the ashen form of his friend. “I-“

Yuusei did not say anything- though in a sense, he was not surprised. As he stood, he opened his mouth to speak only to have his eyes close over in fatigue, body falling forward and collapsing as Kiryu caught him in shock.

“AH-” The man fumbled, soon finding his arms wrapped around the shrunken form that his friend had so preferred during the age of the Dark Signers.

“He- Shrank?” Jack asked, he and the others coming up behind him and staring at the already slumbering spirit.

“Not very surprising,” Demak murmured, looking to the ‘god’ before shaking himself in mild shock nonetheless.

“He- It’s him now, right?” Crow coughed, looking to the shaman uneasily. “ _Right_?”

A nod. “Of course he is- quite undoubtedly so in fact,” he observed. “No doubt he’s also exhausted,” Demak added, “After dealing with the original god in that way.”

Uh. “Erm. What way, exactly?” Carly laughed nervously.

Demak in response to that, looked over the group, sore and fatigued as they were, and turned back toward the D-Wheels.

“For now, that can wait until we’re inside,” he decided, much to the mild annoyance of the others. “I can tell you that with what happened now however, fifteen minutes won’t cost us a thing. Not any more.”


	88. Chapter 88

“Hey can we not do the whole ‘wait until we’re inside’ thing this time?” Crow offered as they drove back toward the foothills per Demak’s request. “Because last time you said it wouldn’t kill anyone, it almost killed all of us.”

“This time, we have the deciding power for that sleeping in a sidecar,” the shaman replied, Yuusei in question giving a short and audible yawn from the side of Bommer’s bike.

Kiryu frowned. “I could still dri- OW!” he hissed, his words cut short by the staff that cracked against his head.

“I’m surprised you’re still conscious let alone speaking, so don’t push it,” he warned sternly. “You’ve exhausted more energy than he has, proportionally.”

At that the others looked toward the spirit in Kiryu’s arms, Jack in particular raising an eyebrow. “How does that even work?” he asked almost suspiciously. “If he 'beat’ Ccapac-Apu, would’t all the power go to him?”

A nod. “It’s a mental exhaustion more than anything,” Demak explained casually. “After devouring the essence of a being millions of years older than himself, his mind needs to adjust.” Uh.

“… _Devour_?” Crow repeated, looking mildly disturbed by the term.

Yet again Demak’s response was casual and concise, as though there was no better explanation for it. “He’ll need to sleep it off,” he told them, apparently not realizing that they needed further detail. “It’s a guarantee that there’s no risk of Ccapac-Apu rising again, however.”

To be honest, they weren’t entirely sure how to react to that. Most of them were silent, trading uneasy looks with another as they silently asked ’ _so what does that mean_ ’, and Kiryu himself merely looked to the cloth covered 'lump’ in his arms almost bitterly.

“My house is still closer,” Bommer started, as though to change the subject. “I could turn around-”

“He’ll recover quicker in the shrine at the hills,” Demak immediately responded. “The same goes for you; there’s a hotspring which runs through there. Between that and any latent energy from the fight, it’ll be better to rest there.”

“And my siblings?” the driver asked stonily.

Demak turned. “There is nothing stopping you from turning back _after_ you’ve dropped us off, now is there?”

Point proven, Bommer chose to remain silent after that, instead focusing on the drive. That in itself did not last much longer; and a few minutes later, the bikes were parked in a more well hidden location as Bommer prepared to leave again.

“I’ll send one of the tamarin when he recovers,” Demak told the man, Bommer merely nodding in response. “Also,” he added, “If you’re asked about the Giant Mark, it may be wise to make the claim of a chance meteor strike.”

That, as well, gained a nod in response, though for a brief moment it looked as though Bommer was just now realizing something he’d forgotten. “Right,” he said swiftly, turning momentarily toward the others. “I’ll see you later,” he told them, the majority of them nodding.

“Right! Until later then,” Crow replied. The bike drove off, and after watching the man leave in a cloud of dust he looked back to Demak. “So?”

The shaman nodded. “Right this way,” he told them. With no further question on the matter, they followed him back up the worn trail, the occasional spirit skirting past to laugh.

* * *

The first thing Demak had done once they returned to his home was lead them down the hall beyond the large sitting area they had sat in prior the fight. There were many rooms as it seemed, more than they had even expected; the temple, as it could hardly have been anything else, was apparently built into the hill itself, the springs Demak had spoken of having been dug out as well.

The room that he led them to however was far beneath the depths of the place, almost secluded in fact. As they stood before the doors a sense of power seemed to emanate from the structure- and it was this room which, upon opening the doors, he instructed them to leave Yuusei within.

Though there was obvious confusion and distrust, they did so. The doors were sealed, and they returned to the upper floors, again meeting within the main sitting area. “Wait in here,” he told them. “I’m going to get tea.”

Perhaps that statement was why no one said anything until he had returned; with all that had happened, somehow even this felt surreal, as though everything that had happened over the course of the past few days were a sort of fever dream that they would soon awake from back in their beds in Japan.

However there was no sudden awakening, and in a few moments Demak did indeed return with the tea, and as it was set upon the table Kiryu stared at it with cold eyes before speaking.

“…Why did you put him in a shrine room?” he hissed, Demak seemingly ignoring him in response. Kiryu’s eyes slowly moved up to look to the shaman with a murderous leer, body trembling as he spoke. “Isn’t that no different from putting him on a pedestal? Aren’t you just making him the god he didn’t want to be known as in the first place now? He just went through hell!” Kiryu snapped, the others not at all missing the use of 'he’ rather than 'we’. “So what gives you any right to do this to him all over again!?”

“Sit down,” Demak responded calmly, his seeming attention to his tea never shifting. “That was then, and this is now; your tea is getting cold,” he added, looking up but briefly as he sipped his own. As Kiryu’s detest continued to bore down on him, the emotion was joined by the others. Despite this, Demak continued to remain silent as he took sips from the mug in his hand; it was only when the mug was empty that he spoke. “During the war between the Signers and Dark Signers, he was a forcefully acquired vessel. However now, he has accepted his fate,” he began stonily. “When a soul becomes part of a demonic collective with as much presence as the Earthbound, there is no escape, not even in death. He had his choices. He could vanish from existence, or replace his jailer and erase Ccapac-Apu’s presence instead,” Demak continued, those before him visibly stiffening. “There was never any other way; Yuusei _is_ Ccapac-Apu now. The sooner you realize that,” he warned, “The easier this will be.”

“ _EASIER_?” Jack protested, slamming a fist on the table with a snarl. “Yuusei would NEVER become that kind of thing!”

- ** _kTHNK_** -

“AA-CH-!”

The staff again connected with Jack’s skull, and as Demak pulled it back and refilled his mug, he frowned. “Did I say he would be 'evil’? Did you simply not listen to my explanations earlier?” he asked further, receiving a low growl in reply. “The Earthbound are millions of years old, they no longer rely on the gathering of souls to survive; they have their own spirit, just as he does. Even if he were to exhaust all of his power, the most that would happen is that his form loses presence on the physical plane; Yuusei is the sole entity left in control of this power,” Demak announced. “It is entirely up to him what he does with it! Good and evil are thus no longer a part of the situation in any way.”

Silence. The group found themselves looking down to their own mugs of tea, and while Carly nervously took her own up to sip, the others swallowed. “So,” Crow started quietly. “It’s definitely him then, this time,” he reiterated. 

Demak scoffed, adjusting the grip on his staff as he nodded. “Of course it is, how could he be anything else? However,” he re-enforced, “That does not change _what_ he is. There is a reason the shrine is the most appropriate place for him to recover; as a hub of spiritual energy, it will allow him to replenish himself far more quickly, and that is because of what he is now. As the replacement for Ccapac-Apu, he takes in its place the advantages and disadvantages of the Earthbound God. Whether he acts for or against the Crimson Dragon, or even if he remains neutral, that does not change. If he exhausts his energy beyond what is required to keep him here, he will be sealed back within the earth regardless. He will live beyond you, your descendants, their descendants and _then_ some! It’s the choice that he made; and you will need to help him through that choice,” he persisted, continuing on without pause. “He accepted his fate, yes, but he also accepted it in the heat of battle. It’s likely that only once he reawakens he’ll realize the gravity of what he’s done.

"It’s going to take time to truly accept that,” Demak continued. “Keep that in mind,” he warned, and in response the others looked to the table in grim silence.

Eventually however, the silence was broken by lighter topics. “So…” Carly coughed as attention drew toward her, the woman laughing uneasily as a result. “Aha- Does that mean I can find out why Yuusei is so small now?”

“Mn- 'Now’?” Jack muttered, Kiryu seeming to stiffen at the question.

Carly nodded. “Yes! He was always around that size in Old Momentum too,” she explained, Demak merely regarding the four with a seemingly glazed look.

In the end he merely stood, turning to leave the room. “I believe that will be enough for the evening actually,” he decided, the others staring confusedly. Staff in hand, he seemed to stumble slightly before righting himself, pausing only briefly to rub his back. “I think I pulled something in that fight; I’m going to sit in the springs for a bit.”

“AH- Springs!?” Jack shouted after the man. “You didn’t even tell us where we’re supposed to sleep!”

“Eh, we’ll just find a spot then,” Crow decided, Carly in the meantime turning to Kiryu.

“Ah- Kiryu?” she asked, the man even quieter than was typical. “Do you perhaps know? I mean- outside all that went on of course, you were still closest to him, so-”

Her words were cut short as the man stood, eyes set to look away from all the others as he turned toward one of the many halls from the room. “I’m going to sleep,” he stated flatly, ignoring any protests he might receive. “I’m tired.”

“Mn- Oii, Kiryu, we don’t even know where there’s a spot to do that yet!” Crow shouted. “Oiii! Kiryu!”

The shouts faded behind him as he walked, and with his fingers trembling he found himself gripping the wall beside him for support. In the end it did not matter if he knew where the rooms they were to sleep in would be; he walked down to the depths of the temple complex yet again, to the doors that seemed to have added charms and ropes across them for some form of protection. He did not touch them, nor did he do more than even glance at them in fact.

He merely sat down beside the doors and looked back up toward the stairs that led him there, dim-lit torches illuminating the passage with an eerie glow. He sat down, and with his fingers brushing against the boneflute at his neck, he waited.


	89. Chapter 89

“I see you’re still down here.”

Kiryu didn’t respond when Demak addressed that fact, the shaman standing almost accusingly before him in the hall. As a matter of fact, the most he did was pause in the tune he played on his flute, continuing to stare at the all in front of his eyes.

So Demak persisted. “You’re not tired?” he asked, already knowing the answer. “Not even willing to move to a bed, or to the springs?”

Lightly tapping the flute, Kiryu merely closed his eyes over and bowed his head. “Is my sitting here going to cause problems?” he asked plainly.

“It won’t.”

“Then I’m fine,” the man answered, only to give a slight yelp as wood cracked over his skull. “SFF-!”

“As a matter of fact, yes you will,” Demak insisted. “Perhaps if you had better reasons for sitting here, I wouldn’t do this- but I find it safe to assume that’s not the case,” he noted darkly. As Kiryu fixed a dark glare toward the shaman, he merely leaned against his staff to continue. “Go upstairs,” he ‘ordered’, his tone flat and more concerned than demanding. “Sit in the springs, get fresh air, or sleep- either one will do,” Demak told the man. “But for now, it will be some time before Yuusei re-awakens. There’s no need to feel like you’ve failed,” he added, as though reading Kiryu’s thoughts in that moment. “There’s no need to feel anymore obligations even; you have done all you could. Better now than never,” the shaman explained with a shrug, “And far better than the alternative of what could have happened in recent times.”

Kiryu remained silent in response- and so, Demak repeated his instruction.

“Go and _rest_ ,” he told him sternly. “Or do you wish for your friend to awaken and see you exhausted and miserable instead?”

“Tch.” Was that how it was? While he didn’t answer he turned away and stood nonetheless, soon turning toward the hall and trudging past Demak. “Fine then,” he muttered lowly, the shaman seemingly unaffected by the tone. “I’ll go to the springs…” He wasn’t tired after all, or at least he told himself that.

Either way, Demak’s response was to merely nod and hide a small smile, watching as the necromancer vanished up the steps. He wouldn’t follow- there was no need really.

Now then- “Lets see,” he started, looking over the door in the dull light. “If I’m going to seal this from the other spirits, I’ll need a few more charms…”

* * *

If there was any way to describe what he saw when he pulled aside the sheet-door in front of the hot springs, he supposed the best one would be 'chaos’.

Admittedly, with the others alone the term was hardly accurate; Carly was sitting near Jack, Crow was sitting on the opposite end of the same pool, and overall they were doing what one would expect someone to do in a hot springs- sitting, and relaxing.

However the others present were taking advantage of the fact that they had no solid form in reality, and as Kiryu stared the others turned.

“Hoiiii Kiryu!” Jack greeted with a shout, gesturing to the rather large spirit present. “Look! It’s Red Daemons!”

The spirit looked up from the pools of water at that, yellowed teeth bared in an odd sort of grin as 'Red Daemons Dragon’ growled cheerily. “ **RAOOOOOOOOooooOOOO**!”

…

'Hello’ to him too. “What is going on,” he 'asked’ lowly, expression barely even shifting from its confused glare across the springs.

“The spirits of the signer dragons appeared!” Carly 'explained’ with a smile, moving to adjust her glasses before realizing they weren’t there. “Even Stardust!” What.

“Stardust?”

“ _Gaaaaaooo_.”

On impulse he turned, only to stumble back as he was met with the familiar white face of the sparkling dragon. “SFF-!" 

” _Aaaoaoooooooooonn._ “

He quickly righted himself, frowning. "Hn. And where did they come from then?”

“Er…” Carly laughed, rubbing her head. “To be honest, we really don’t know!”

“They just sort of appeared to be honest,” Crow shrugged. As he said this 'Red Daemons’  moved closer to the group, ghostly form acting with almost cat-like mannerisms. “Supposedly this is where they all fought before though right? So the signer dragons being here makes sense!” Oh?

“If it’s all the signer dragons, where’s 'Black Winged Dragon?”

Crow blinked, grin frozen over his face for a split second before shifting into a scowl. “Just because he wasn’t there last time-!” he shouted, splashing a wave of water toward the man, Kiryu giving a shout in response.

“NGK-!” HOT! The water scalded his arms as he brought them up for defense, his mood swiftly souring yet again.

As though to only just then realize his mistake, Crow paled. “Er-”

“Tch. I’m going to sleep,” Kiryu muttered, storming back down the hall.

“AH- Wait, Kiryu-!” Carly shouted, the man ignoring her as he vanished. “Kiryu!!”

There was no use in shouting in the end; even just with the sheet-door in the way he could barely hear them. It didn’t take long for him to find a room he could sleep in either. With that in mind, it didn’t take long to separate himself from the others in the temple either. He’d sleep for now, he decided in the end.

He’d have to go back downstairs once they were asleep themselves.


	90. Chapter 90

One could hear the music coming from near the door if they stood at the top of the staircase. The tune given by the bone-flute seemed more mourning than it typically did, its already morose tone growing dark and despairing over time. Demak had yet to address this however; it was as though he realized that there was no changing his mind, that to convince him to move would now be impossible. So for a number of hours after Kiryu returned to the space just outside Yuusei’s door, the man would remain uninterrupted.

“ _Aaaaaaooooooonnnn?_ ”

In the end, it would have been foolish to believe he could have remained alone during that time. “Hahhhhhh.” He paused in the music he played, watching the dragon’s head poke up through the ground. It was something of a surprise, the size the two spirits were; he would have expected them to reach enormous height, but in reality their bodies were only about the size of an ox. While length and wingspan certainly added to things, it was nothing compared to what they would have been at the size of the holograms in dueling; if anything Stardust’s head was the same size as a horse’s, making it plenty easy for him to look the beast in the eye without issue. “What are you doing here?” he asked the dragon, watching as it tilted its head in confusion.

“ _AaaaaaaaaooooOOOOONNNNnnnnn._ ”

“Hn!” He snorted, looking away. The dragon, it seemed, had merely followed him; for whatever reasons were entirely beyond his understanding. “I’m surprised you can even stand to be in my presence,” he muttered lowly. “After what I did to your last owner. Or is it some blind loyalty for whoever has your card?” he asked bitterly, raising an eyebrow as he glanced back to the spirit.

“ _Rrrnnn… AOORRRRRRRRNNNnnNN!_ ”

At the roar he received in response Kiryu merely snorted yet again. “Hn. So you’re just an idiot then,” he murmured, looking away. The dragon tilted its head in further confusion, before attempting to bat it against the man’s hand in failed retaliation.

“ _Rrnnnnn… Raooonnnnnnnn-_ ”

He pulled his hand back, fixing the beast with a glare. “Stop that,” he muttered darkly, Stardust seeming to back away a few inches. “If you’re not going to hate me then at least pretend to have nothing to do with me,” Kiryu told it, looking away.

“ _Rrrrooaaaa…_ ”

“I mean it!” he snapped at the dragon. “You shouldn’t want anything to do with me!”

“ _Aoooooooooooo…_ ”

“Understand?” Kiryu continued louder. “I’m the reason we’re here! Your rightful owner can’t even touch you because of me! So stop acting as though none of that matters!” he roared. “You know exactly what I’ve done, now act like it!”

“Rrrrrnn-!” Stardust reared back somewhat, bringing himself to a height a fair bit above Kiryu’s own and staring almost blankly. For a few moments they held this gaze, Kiryu breathing heavily as he recovered from his rant and Stardust observing in silence.

After some time however it looked back behind Kiryu, the man shifting somewhat with confusion. “Mn-?”

“ _AooooooooOOOO!_ ”

“H- Oi! Stay away from that!” Without warning the dragon launched itself at the door, only for Kiryu to watch as it more or less stuck to the outside of it. “What?”

The dragon crawled around the door, almost comically raising its head to voice complaint. “ _AOOOOOOOOOooo. AAAAAAOOOOOOUUUUUUUU_.” The dragon rubbed its head against the door, ‘scratching’ at it and shifting around the entrance with no effect. “ _AAAaaaAAAAAOOOOOUNNNNN_!”

“Hey! Knock it off,” Kiryu hissed, grabbing at the dragon only for his hand to pass through it. Growling under his breath he thus focused on speaking, the monster looking toward him. “I said stop!” he repeated. “You can’t go in there!”

“ _AAAAAAOOOOOU_.”

“I’m not opening the door for you,” he warned, half guessing just what the dragon wanted of him at the moment.

The dragon returned to its pattern of circling on the door, yowling in complaint.

“Nnnhhhhh- Stop that!” he repeated clearly, the dragon only briefly pausing to do so. “What would you even do if you got in there?” he asked with narrowed eyes. “He’s still recovering, don’t you realize that?”

Stardust stopped its howls, turning back with a low moan of sorts. “ _RrrrrrnrnnnnnnNNNnnnnnn_.”

He sighed. “Follow me,” he decided, moving to go up the stairs. “If you stay down here you’ll just cause trouble.”

“ _AAAaooo_!”

“Tch.” With rolled eyes the man moved, and soon enough if he looked back in the corner of his eyes he could see the form of the white dragon floating and galloping after. “What am I even supposed to do with you,” he muttered, shaking his head.

The response, of course, was as little help as every other answer Stardust gave. “ _RRraaaaoooOOOUN_!”

“Hmph!”

With any luck, he’d wander off and join Red-Daemons after an hour or so of this.


	91. Chapter 91

When he woke up the next morning, he was proven quite wrong about his theories on what Stardust would do in the end. To be frank, he likely wouldn’t have noticed if that had been the case for the most part; whether or not the dragon spent his days with ‘Red’ as the other was called would have been entirely ignored by him, given the fact that he had intended to spend the rest of his time waiting outside Yuusei’s door.

However when he woke up, it was to the face of the large white goofball of a dragon, Kiryu flinching and rolling away from the spirit with a string of curses in the air on reflex. “SFF-! What the F-”

“ _ **AOOOooooUUUN~**_ ”

Kiryu fixed the dragon with a sour glare, sitting up to watch as the beast did similar. “You again,” he muttered darkly, the dragon shaking itself and yawning in response. “What do you want now?”

“ _ **Aoooooooounnnn.**_ ” Another yawn as the dragon stretched, before pacing around to lay down at the man’s side. “ _ **AAAAAaaaaaAAOOUUUUuuunnn!**_ ”

Ahaha. “Cut it out, I don’t speak 'dragon’.”

“ _ **Rrrrrrnnnnn.**_ ”

Did it even understand what he said?

Cursing under his breath he moved to stand, stretching his arms free of stiffness and moving to leave the room. This was the fourth day since they’d come to Demak’s residence, if one counted day that they 'arrived’. He and the others had arguably slept through that first day, and while the second had him sit an early vigil at Yuusei’s door day three had brought with it the matter of Stardust Dragon.

A matter that had yet to be dealt with. “You’re worse than the dog,” he snorted, hands stuffed in his pockets as he wandered the temple grounds. The dragon merely answered with a gruff snort, golden eyes filled with an amused sort of carelessness as it 'galloped’ at Kiryu’s side. “Don’t you have something better to do?”

A chuffing sound was the man’s response, and thus Kiryu rolled his eyes and continued to wander.

“You spent at least a few thousand years here alone didn’t you?” he scolded. “Why not find someone who actually wants you around then?”

“ _ **AAaaaaooouuuurrrrn…**_ ”

With the tone of the dragon’s moaning Kiryu found himself silent, looking to the spirit with a frown as they came to an outdoor enclosure of sorts. It seemed that with the formation of the rocks, a sort of inner courtyard had been formed, the bowl of life in the rocks built into by whoever had created the temple itself. It was brimming with native foliage  and above all, incredibly secluded; if he climbed up to higher ground, he could see the entrance to the temple as well, his collection of bones well within view.

“ _ **AoooooOOOUUNnnnn!**_ ”

He raised an eyebrow. “ _Really_?” he 'asked’, watching as the spirit continued to 'climb’ the rocks. “You can fly, can’t you?”

“ _ **RrrrNNNnnn.**_ ” Stardust seemed to look up in confusion at that, as if to say 'that’s hardly the point is it?’, and in response Kiryu found himself snorting.

“Tch.” Despite his annoyance at the sight he found himself unable to feel truly angry; the dragon was odd, yes, but in the end it was still that. A _dragon_. So then- “OI!” he snapped, the dragon having made its way up only to start poking his nose through the man’s arm. “Stop that!”

“ _ **AOUUUUNNN.**_ ”

He groaned, holding his head as he sighed. “Cats,” he muttered, shaking his head, “You’re all giant, scaled _cats_ -” As the necromancer said this his eyes drifted toward the bone-d-wheel on the other side of the stone wall, fingers twitching just slightly as an idea formed in his mind. Giant scaled cats who refuse to leave him alone?

Perhaps then an equally enormous distraction was needed. “ _ **RRnnnNNNN-!**_ ” Clattering bones filled the air, and as the makeshift lure darted across the ground the spirit lunged toward it, chasing the structure through the small expanse whilst Kiryu moved his fingers to control it. It was almost amusing to watch- this horse-sized dragon of 'ultimate power’, batting at the bones as though it were a cat playing with lasers. It was amusing enough that by the time the sun had gone down, he had successfully spent the entire day there, only occasionally pausing to take a bite of the fruit from the tree next to him. Amusing enough that for a moment, his sour mood seemed to have softened, despite the still perpetuating gloom he felt once the playing was over.

It was enough that as he passed the empty hot springs to sleep, he found himself pondering what it would be like to sit in the waters for sometime, leaving once he heard footsteps down the hall.

In the morning however, the halls would prove silent, and the waters as still as they had been the evening before.

And so in the morning, with his mood lightened only slightly, he decided to try sitting in their waters after all.


	92. Chapter 92

The sixth day spent in Demak’s home went much the same as the day before it, and Kiryu found himself far more relaxed as a result. Between the almost unrealistic zeal Stardust held in playing with the bone lure he crafted and controlled, and the combination of warmth and solitude offered by the hot springs as of late, he could almost say he was ‘happy’ even, if at least to himself.

The solitude was likely helped by the hours he was awake; with early mornings and early evenings he likely missed the others by a long-shot, turning in for bed long before they arrived. It left him alone to his thoughts, something that could have been seen as problematic if not for the fact that Stardust was there.

The dragon had a way after all, of keeping him on the 'right’ topic. His naive and cat-like curiosity held his attentions, and in the moments when the dragon relaxed Kiryu found himself more focused on the ridiculous positions it 'lay’ over the rocks in rather than darker topics. It was calming, strange as the notion was.

A full week after the battle against the 'giant’, and he found himself looking forward to another day like that- he sat in the hotsprings with a somewhat relaxed sigh, and the dragon coiled around the stones beside him. All was well- all was calm.

And quite suddenly, there were other voices interrupting his thoughts. “Oh-”

Kiryu snapped his gaze toward the door, watching as Carly and the others came in.

“Kiryu, you’re in here here?” the woman asked, Kiryu for his part merely watching with wide eyes as the others grinned.

He looked to the dragon at the side, Stardust in question merely staring back with a look that could only be described as sheepish. “You _traitor,_ ” he muttered lowly, only to hear the water splashing to the sides as a few of the group started entering. “Ugh.”

“Awww come on!” Crow laughed, watching as his friend seemed to quite deliberately search for a more secluded area of the pool. “I’m not gonna splash you this time!”

“Crow you shouldn’t have splashed him in the first place,” Carly murmured.

“Er, yea, well-”

“ _Stardust_ is with you?” At Jack’s question the others turned, Kiryu seemingly paying the comment no mind.

Despite the feigned ignorance, the others continued to stare. “Huh.” Taking their seats in the spring the staring persisted, Crow half leaning around a nearby rock to check. “Wow. Shit,” he laughed, “He’s really warmed up to you!”

Warmed up? “Define 'warming up’.”

“If he had a body,” Crow snorted, “You’d be stuck under his head.”

The dragon seemed to briefly consider the motion despite obvious physical drawbacks at that- in the end however there was a sharp look from Kiryu to keep him from doing so, and Stardust instead curled back into a large scaled ball. “ ** _GaaaaaaAAOOOOOOoo_**.”

“Ehhhhh. Y-You’re not going to give him a body too right?” Carly asked uneasily.

Kiryu merely ignored them. “With what, a cat?” he retorted, Stardust’s tail flicking at the comment. “Besides,” the necromancer added, “Pone is enough trouble on his own.”

“And you left him with _Bruno_ ,” Jack 'questioned’, grinning as his friend groaned.

“As long as the kids are there, it’ll be fine,” he grumbled. “Nico’s responsible enough, same as Ruka-”

“Ah, but didn’t Pone jump off the side of the roof once?!” Carly protested.

“Without shattering?” Crow choked, Kiryu rolling his eyes.

“He’s not _just_ bones-” he started, his friend remaining adamant.

“Normal dogs don’t survive those heights!”

“Well he’s obviously not _normal_!” Jack snorted, Carly coughing from beside him.

“Eh, b-but, did they tell Bruno about that part?”

“You’ve got a _super dog_!?”

The sound of a small boy’s gleeful shout was more than enough to snap the conversation short, those in the springs turning as they were met with the sight of Bommer and his siblings.

“N-” Kiryu choked on his words. “What are you doing here?” he finally shouted, drawing back almost defensively.

“We decided to check in on you while we brought your things back,” Bommer answered, Carly nodding from the side.

“Ah! That’s right, we left most of our luggage there didn’t we?”

As Annie and her siblings smiled, the young girl nodded as well. “That’s right- we’re sorry it took such a long time to bring it back here!”

“Yea, there was a lot of stuff, and a lot of it was stuck under rocks, and-” Max hurriedly quieted down as he caught a look from his brother, changing the subject. “Hey mister, do you really have a super dog!?”

Uh. “’ _Super dog_ ’?” Kiryu repeated almost dully.

“You said he jumped off a roof!” “How’s he still alive-!”

“Hey hey! Settle down!” laughed Crow, Kiryu for his part merely looking to the redhead with a narrowed (and confused) stare. “'Super’ dog is close, but not quite there,” he told them. “Pone’s definitely no normal dog though! A stupid dog, sure,” the teen added with a snort. “But I wouldn’t say a 'super’ dog.”

“But what makes him special then?”

“You could say he’s lived twice,” Crow answered with a shrug, the others more or less listening in confusion or amusement. “Showed up way north, in the middle of the mountains.”

As the kids beamed at the story, Max continued with still more questions. “Really? How’d you meet him?!”

“Heh, don’t ask me!” Crow shrugged. “Ask-”

“I met him because he was being an idiot,” Kiryu stated, looking at the water with narrowed eyes. The positive mood seemed to evaporate from the air, and with silence threatening to prevail Kiryu continued to speak. “He wouldn’t leave without playing 'fetch’ of all things,” he snorted. “ _FETCH_.” The man sighed, leaning back on the stone. “Idiot dog.”

“So then…” Kiryu looked up, raising an eyebrow as the kids at Bommer’s side stared, as though unsure if it was safe to speak. “So then, what did you do?” Annie asked almost quietly.

Kiryu seemed to almost mull the question over in his mind, as though unable to believe it had been asked at all as he slowly began to quietly laugh. “Heh. Hnhnhahaha… What else do you do when that happens?” he retorted, a tinge of humor tainting his voice nonetheless. “I threw the stick. And after that he wouldn’t leave me alone, so I let him stick around.”

“ _You_ let him, eh?” Jack snorted from the side.

“Tch! What, you think it was the other way around?” he snapped back, smiling nonetheless. “He’s a decent dog,” he admitted somewhat quietly, moving to leave the springs. “Better than most.”

“Mn- Oi, Kiryu!”

“I’m just tired!” He called back, somewhat lazily waving a hand as he moved past everyone. “I’ll see you in the morning,” he added a little more hesitantly.

There was no further argument, or so it seemed. The door that led to the springs was closed behind him, and though the sudden invasion of others had been both unwanted and strangely tiring, he found himself unable to discard the small smile on his face. It was strange, he thought to himself as he walked toward the main hall of the building. However he almost felt-

“ _ **Hh- HaaaaaAAAAAAaaaahh…**_ ”

As he turned the corner of the hall the sound of a yawn caught his attention, and just as quickly his eyes met with the source as it wandered through the crossing paths. For an instant, Kiryu stared in disbelief, as though what he saw before him was nothing more than a dream.

It was anything but that in the end though, wasn’t it?

“Y. Yuu… Sei…”

With an internal snap the weight of guilt crushed down on his being, sending the man crumbling to his knees before the small figure in black and blue. With so few words to say and only tears that were delayed for far too long Kiryu bowed his head, holding it in his hands as he looked away from his forever changed friend. “I’m sorry,” he managed to force himself to say aloud, his voice cracked and hoarse with the pressure. “I’m _so sorry_ Yuusei, I-”

Cold, yet strangely warm hands clasped his shoulders, and Kiryu looked up to see a face he had almost entirely forgotten, ghostly visage or not. He would never look as he did in life again- not really, after all. However despite this Yuusei smiled, pulling his friend close into an embrace that was all too late to come. “ _ **It’s alright Kiryu,**_ ” he told him quietly, the two friends sitting alone in the darkness. “ _ **I forgive you.**_ ”


	93. Chapter 93

Scheduling a plane back home did not take long, once Yuusei had re-awakened. It was odd, of course- though he remained at his true height during the time they were within Demak’s home, the eerie glow of blue markings on black skin would never fade, and no ‘shapeshifting’ could destroy that.

The others would have perhaps found it odd when he took the same size he had upon collapsing the many days prior, however Kiryu uneasily found himself agreeing with the spirit’s logic when the matter came up. As a being who was dead, solid or not, there would be none who could see him.

Therefore, it would be better to take as little space as possible, wouldn’t it?

The scheduling took little time, however the rest took far more. Driving to the airport may have not been quite so long, given that the plane would be leaving Nazca, however as they stood at the line for checks-

“Sir, are these _bones_ in your carry-on bags?”

Kiryu managed to respond with such a blank stare that even those standing well over two meters behind him were looking uncomfortable. “Yes.”

The guard took a moment to blink off the shock. “ _Real_ bones? You’re carrying _real bones_ onto a plane-”

“They were given to me, and they’re completely clean,” he continued calmly, those behind him showing their own silent forms of discomfort. If there was one thing Carly had warned _everyone_ after all, it was this.

For the love of god, don’t speak, don’t argue, don’t. Start. _Anything_.

Given the expression on Jack’s face, the last demand was pushing it quite firmly, and if Kiryu didn’t get through soon, something was going to go quite wrong. “S… Sir, we’re going to need to see you in one of our rooms,” he started, Kiryu crossing his arms with a frown.

“And may I ask _why_?” he pressed coolly.

“With all due respect, we have no proof that these are as clean as you say they are, more importantly, bringing animal bones in something such as a carry on bag-”

“I like to keep some of my skeletons with me.”

“S-Some!?”

Before the guard could say anything more, a rattling came from within the bag, well distanced from any human contact and already cleared for being filled of naught but long deceased objects. The guards, needless to say, found themselves shocked entirely still.

And so- “Can I get on the plane now.”

It would not be until they were on the plane that Yuusei was let out of the bag, but at least it answered the question of where he’d vanished to when he decided to 'take less space’.


	94. Chapter 94

“ **Neh, Kiryu?** ”

“Hm?”

“ **…Is there something I can eat?** ”

There had been a bit of quiet debate, getting on the plane, about if it was necessary for Yuusei to hold ‘doll size’ once beyond the security checks. The spirit himself seemed not to mind, and in fact loosely implied that he preferred it. Kiryu more or less accepted it, grim as his expression was. Crow however, found himself rather awkwardly staring a little longer than he would have cared to do so, eventually forcing himself to look out the window rather than attempt to strike up conversation with what the rest of the plane saw as thin air. Jack and Carly meanwhile, were sitting up in first class, which left Kiryu as the one currently acting as a 'seat’ for Yuusei himself.

A few hours into the flight however, and with Crow asleep, the spirit was only now voicing his question. “Mn.” Kiryu leaned back in his seat, grimacing. “I already gave you the lunch I got with my ticket,” he muttered lowly, warily keeping his voice down. “And Crow’s eaten his,” he added, a light snore coming from the side.

Though Yuusei did not say anything in response to this initially, it was fairly clear that the answer had not quite been what he was looking for. His head flopped downward in apparent exhaustion, and he turned around, falling quite silent even compared to the trip thus far.

“…Yuusei?” he asked after a few moments of this, a worried frown on his face. There was no response, and he tried again, lightly tapping the spirit. “Yuusei- hey, are you-”

Yuusei turned back, his friend stiffening as enormous blue eyes looked up. To say they hadn’t been abnormally large before would have been ridiculous of course; there was nothing physically possible about Yuusei at this size, a fact emphasized by his voice to say the least. However it seemed that in the span of perhaps half an hour, the spirit’s mouth had vanished to make room for eyes the size of his fists.

It was remarkably difficult to ignore, and even more difficult to speak against. “O-Oi,” he finally grit out lowly, voice scarcely more than a hiss. “Stop that!”

Without blinking, or even materializing a mouth to speak of, Yuusei responded. “ **Stop what?** ”

“ _That!_ ” he hissed, “Your eyes!”

“ **What about my eyes?** ”

“You mean other than the fact that they just tripled in size?!” He cut himself short, eyes snapping to look around him as a few of the passengers began turning to stare. “Augh…”

“ **There’s nothing wrong with my eyes, Kiryu.** ”

“S _FFFFF_ \- If you’re hungry, go ask Jack in first class!” he finally snapped under his breath. “He and Carly are able to buy extra meals if they want!”

The eyes continued to stare, a fairly startling contrast to Yuusei’s near-monotone to say the least. “ **Really?** ”

“Yes!” Perhaps that had come out a little harshly, but the stare was starting to set him off quite a lot. “Just go straight toward the front, they should be on the same side!”

Yuusei didn’t so much as hesitate in hopping off his friend’s lap at that, hovering a few inches from the floor and darting off down the hall. It was likely child’s play for the spirit to make it to First Class undetected really; he had that to think on, if nothing else.

…

He hoped Yuusei’s eyes went back to normal before then, however.


	95. Chapter 95

Interruptions weren’t expected in First Class, and if anything it should have been completely quiet for the two sitting there. He and Carly had of course made sure the seats were together- one part preference, another part privacy, with conversations being better between close company of course- but it seemed to have come in handy more than they expected when a small figure in black and blue floated up through the aisle.

“NM-! Yuusei!?” He barely managed to keep his voice down enough that it didn’t attract attention, and as he got over his shock long enough to look down he merely found himself becoming more alarmed. “Gh- What’s wrong with your face!?”

“ **…Kiryu said that as well,** ” Yuusei noted, “ **But I don’t feel any different from before.** ”

“Well you definitely are!” he protested, receiving the same blank stare in response. The blond swallowed, Carly looking from her own seat as the hushed conversation continued. “Tch- What are you doing up here? I thought you were staying with Kiryu?”

“ **I’m hungry.** ”

Hungry? Jack blinked, looking up a moment in thought and growing white in the process. “O-Oii, but if you’re dead… And an ‘earthbound…” …D-Didn’t that mean that what he wanted to eat was-

…

AAA _AAAAAA-_

“Oh, if you like, I have some desert left-over,” Carly was telling the spirit in the meantime, Jack managing to snap himself from his thoughts long enough to register the sound.

“ **Ah? Desert?** ”

The woman nodded, shuffling slightly to allow the spirit access to the table. “Yes! I don’t eat much, so it’s better this way right?”

“Ah… Y-Yuusei eats…”

Jack continued to stare as the spirit’s eyes shrank back down to 'typical’ size, expression again shifting back with a confused sort of disgust when Yuusei’s mouth decided to take abnormal size in return. He could have likely swallowed the entire plate whole if he wanted.

In fact, he was rather surprised that he didn’t. “Ahhhh… So cute…” Carly cooed, the words quite ignored by Yuusei whilst the woman’s boyfriend narrowed his eyes.

“…Cute?”

The plate was cleared. “ **Neh, Jack?** ”

“Mn!?” The blond jumped, Yuusei turning to look toward him almost blankly.

“ **…Kiryu said you can order extra meals. Is that true?** ”

“Er…” Frankly, it was rather difficult to even consider lying in this situation. “R-Right.”

It took everything they had not to make a scene out of keeping Yuusei away from the plate until the attendant had left ('Yuusei, while they can’t see you, it’s suspicious if the food starts vanishing!’). To a mildly paranoid Jack, however, it was better than waiting to see if his friend really had inherited a taste for souls.


	96. Chapter 96

Nothing in the world could have prepared him for this.

“ _CARLY_.”

Nothing. Not even anything in hell, could have prepared him for this.

“ _CARLY… OI…_ ”

Carly didn’t help so much as stare with an odd sort of smile on her face, light snoring meeting the air from Jack’s lap. “Oh my goodness, he’s so adorable-!”

“ _Carly!_ ” Jack hissed, “He fell asleep on my _LAP_ -” Without warning! In the span of perhaps five minutes between finishing the meal, and that instant then!

“Ahh, well, he’s been in and out since he woke up in Nazca right?” the woman laughed dismissively. “Just let him sleep, he’s just tired!”

“What-!” He looked back as the spirit shuffled slightly, mouth widening almost as much as his own head for a yawn, before closing back to normal size and vanishing completely. “Ngh…”

“Ahhhh… It’s cuter than when I saw him last time…”

It took a moment for the depth of those words to hit; until that point, he had largely been taking what she said as little more than the typical, and why not, for after all, it sounded no different. However quite suddenly he realized what had been unnerving him since Yuusei’s ‘revival’.

“…Carly,” he realized. “I thought you didn’t remember anything beyond your death.”

The woman froze, eyes widening. “Ah- Oh…” she looked down, a hand to her chin as she herself came to realize the same thing. “I- I hadn’t noticed… I just remembered seeing Yuusei eat at some point, and sleep…” She looked back. “Ah- D-Do you think maybe, because of that blast in the fight-!”

The precise origin of the memory regain would never be entirely pinned down in the end. As it were, there would always be blank patches of memory, points in time that Carly could not at all recall.


	97. Chapter 97

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This particular entry was written by Gale herself! (Yay!)

Coming home was surprisingly uneventful, considering all the troubles they’d gone through at the other airport. Maybe it was because it was the late evening shift, and all the employees were eager to get the last few flights in before turning in, or something similar…either way, there wasn’t much scrutiny of Kiryuu’s bones this time around, and after all, thanks to Pone’s debut at the WRGP’s opening party, word about the odd little bone animatronic “artist” currently residing in the Tops area likely had gotten around somewhat.

As it was, the airport and the streets themselves were nearly empty, so it was easy for them to gather their things and load up the D-Wheels once they were transported out of the plane’s cargo hold, and it was during then that Yuusei finally awoke, poking his head out of one of the pouches on Carly’s belt where she had placed him when it had come time to exit the plane.

**“Where are we?”** he’d abruptly questioned, and everyone else jumped in surprise at hearing him speak all of a sudden.

“Er-we’re back home, Yuusei!” Carly quipped, quietly enough so that others around them couldn’t hear, despite how empty the airport’s parking lot actually was. “Or, we just got off the plane, anyway, ahaha…”

**“Oh. Is the garage nearby?”**

“Garage?” As Carly voiced that question, it dawned on everyone that it hadn’t really been decided where Yuusei would actually stay, considering his status as being _dead_ and not actually needing shelter of any kind if he really preferred not to, and it’d just been assumed that he’d go back with Kiryuu, considering the whole being a spirit thing.

**“That’s where you’re getting ready for that big Riding Duel tournament you were all talking about back at Demak’s place, right? About how you’d be able to get back in time for it, and making preparations on the D-Wheels…I want to see that progress.”**

The others all exchanged looks, the boys who had known Yuusei best giving particularly knowledgeable ones. Of course Yuusei would want to investigate programming and D-Wheels-it’d been what he loved, what he’d always had been into back when he was…

Well.

**“It’s okay with you all if I stay there for at least a bit, right?”**

With that, everyone turned to look at Kiryuu, and he flinched.

“What? It’s like you expect me to have some kind of claim on him…there isn’t a problem with anyone else, right? If there isn’t, then it’s fine!” As Kiryuu thought it over, it might have actually been a good idea. Yuusei clearly didn’t mean anything by not wanting to stay with him for the moment (or so he told himself, resolutely trying to quash any feelings of guilt that may have come from that assumption), and considering his current track record with Pone and the other skeletons, and the particularly spiritually sensitive kids around him there…it might have been for the best to keep Yuusei away from there for the time being regardless.

“Then it’s settled!” Crow proclaimed with a cheery grin. “You can just ride home with me, Yuusei.”

**“Ah, Crow.”** And with that, Yuusei promptly dove into Crow’s open luggage, causing the markered man to grimace.

“Oi, I spent a long time folding those clothes…”

**“They needed to be washed, anyway.”** Yuusei burrowed into the clothes until little more than a small lump in them could be seen, and light snoring could be heard from the lump not even ten seconds later.

“Asleep _again_?!”

“Well, he has been kinda in and out a lot, Jack…ahaha…”

* * *

However quick Yuusei was to sleep, he was just as quick to awaken, and so he did just as Crow trudged into the garage late at night. It was a good thing as well: it meant that Yuusei could help Crow put away the rest of the luggage, as Bruno was still over in the Tops with the children and Pone. Putting away the things after that, even while making sure to keep quiet in order to not disturb Zora, was quite easy with that extra help. It happened so quickly that, even as tired as Crow was, he still was lucid enough to think of finding some sort of bedding for Yuusei.

“Mnn, Bruno always takes the couch, but he isn’t here tonight, so that could work-“

**“It’s fine, Crow, I found a spot.”**

“Hah?” As he watched Yuusei burrow into a small wicker basket full of used rags that had been sitting at the foot of the stairs leading to the outside of the garage, he did a double take. “HAH?!”

So much for not waking Zora.

It took much apologizing and listening to her rant about inconsiderate people not able to keep in mind that people were _sleeping_ and should be quieter about moving in at the middle of the night and it took many stammered excuses and apologies about accidentally dropping something when stumbling down the stairs. After he got that out, it was listening to her coo over him and console him about having to move about such heavy luggage while he was so tired, and while he did manage to persuade her that it wasn’t necessary to make him tea or something after his long journey back, it still took longer to send her off than was to his liking.

After that, there was little else to do than turn to Yuusei with a disgruntled expression, only to be met with two wide blue dots for eyes that were staring up at him from under the dirty oil-covered rags in the wicker basket.

**“What? It’s not like I could have been of much help there.”**

“Not that…” A sigh. “Yuusei, I know we always had to make do back in Satellite, but it’s not like that now…are you really sure you want to sleep there? That’s where Bruno and I leave all the dirty rags used to mop up oil…”

**“It’s cozy.”**

“Euh…at least let me get you some cleaner sheets to sleep in…”

By the time he’d come back with them, Yuusei had already fallen asleep, curled up in a ball. He wasn’t even disturbed as Crow changed out the sheets with a sigh.

“Haaah…Like a cat…”

* * *

“AUGH! CROW! THE COMPUTER! IT-IT’S HAUNTED OR SOMETHING!” As Bruno’s screams grew louder as he tore into the kitchen, Crow let out a sigh.

He should have known that he’d have forgotten something.

Crow let himself be dragged into the garage as Bruno continued to blubber about what he’d seen.

“I’d gotten up to get some cup ramen and I turned back and the keys were _moving_!” he shrieked as he tugged Crow over to the computer, where the chair was still pulled out and keyboard indeed busy at work, complex commands being entered into the program at work.

“All sorts of commands were popping up and-oh wow, they’re making a really interesting improvisation on the boost output program, that’d help us get some serious speed, although how to counter the strain on the engine is-wuaaaaah, but _Crowwwww, looooook, it’s haunted what do we dooooooo-“_

Crow managed to extricate himself from Bruno’s surprisingly strong grip and instead crouched slightly so that he’d be at eye level with whatever would have been sitting in the chair.

“Oi, Yuusei. You can’t just get up and start adjusting programs like that, you know…” A quick tap to the cloaked shoulder got Yuusei to finally turn his head, and he blinked.

**“Ah, but the program, I saw a way to fix this and-“**

“You scared Bruno! He doesn’t know about you yet!”

**“Ah.”** Yuusei looked back and forth between the two, before staring at Bruno, who was still shaking despite confusion creeping onto his face and replacing fear.

**“Hello, I’m Yuusei.”**

“Yuusei, he can’t hear or _see_ you, that’s why he’s terrified in the first place…”

Again, Yuusei glanced at both of them with a blank expression.

**“Oh.”**


	98. Chapter 98

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> so it occurred to me that maybe if i'm listed as a co-creator on this fic i should actually post my own handwritten chapters every now and then instead of letting usagi post them for me
> 
> also thanks so much for all the comments guys it's good to see an old series get some love every now and then

Even with the gratuitous use of bones to help him drag his luggage up to the Tops, Kiryu distantly found himself thanking everything for the existence of elevators. In that state of mind, it was simple to do nothing else but mechanically unpack everything in his room and collapse onto the bed in dreamless sleep.   
  
When he woke up, it was mid-afternoon. Damned jet lag. He had a moment of panic on finding out that he’d overslept, before remembering that Bruno had already agreed before the trip to get the kids ready for school for today as well. Bruno had even thoughtfully decided to take Pone with him to the garage, lest the dog’s barking wake him up. Thank goodness. With that knowledge in mind, it was surprisingly easy to fall into a lazy sort of mood, a quiet languor that carried him through the apartment as he slowly shook off the stresses of travel. He sat on one of the couches facing the large screen doors and marveled at the view, musing idly on the fact that despite being in the tallest building of the bustling ritzy center of one of the largest cities in Japan, it was possible to still feel very much alone. After all that had happened in such a short time, this train of thought was actually rather calming. At least he had a nice place to be alone with his own thoughts.   
  
Soon enough, however, he grew restless doing nothing, and his thoughts turned to what had become daily routine once his position as caretaker had been cemented. According to the clock, the kids would likely be out from school soon enough, so that left him enough time to look over the home and check for anything that might have been left undone. Other than West neglecting to clean his side of the bedroom (again) and Rua leaving his duel board maintenance supplies out (again), the home was practically spotless, and the only thing left for Kiryu to do was to go over a week’s worth of unopened mail, helpfully left out and sorted on one of the counters. Granted, given that Kiryu and the kids didn’t do much in the way of paper correspondence, there wasn’t really anything to go over than the obligatory billing statements…and a business-like standard envelope addressed to him from an unfamiliar address. Huh.   
  
Opening it cautiously (with a bony appendage, held a goodly distance away from him with some more bones-never let it be said that Kiryu ever fully gave up the paranoia that had marked him so deeply) led him to discover that it contained a few pages of folded paper, lined front and back with such and such words and official-sounding jargon that it took all his weeks and weeks of experience within the hells of government-sanctioned red tape to make any sense of it. The detachable portion at the end of it all, however, was easily understood. A little rectangular slip of paper, signed with his name, and bearing a sum with a decent amount of zeroes: a check. The letter: a congratulations for being hired by so-and-so caretaking agency, on the behalf of Mr. and Ms. First Name Last Name, his first assignment being the care of their twin children Rua and Ruka. The rest of it was a long spiel detailing the code of conduct and details of the job-which he’d already been following long before actually being hired, before finishing off with the presentation of his first paycheck. Huh. On the week he wasn’t even there to perform the job he was presumably hired for, at that!  
  
His first paycheck, really? He couldn’t help but reflect on distant memories at that thought-a time when a regular paycheck was nothing but a dream to be dashed like all the rest. Everyone in Satellite who didn’t work in the factories-hell, even those who did-had indulged in that idle fantasy. A regular, sustainable paycheck, just what would they buy with it! The answers ranged anywhere from the simple toy or pack of cards, to the dreams of a proper house or apartment, to the snarky request of more booze (“hey, bartender, fill ‘em up!”). While Kiryu would have liked to say he focused more on bigger ideas back then, it was humbling to remember childish memories that proved otherwise. Haah…  
  
Idly drumming his fingers on the envelope for a few moments brought him to thinking over his current situation, and he couldn’t help but laugh. His living and food expenses were completely covered by default of living with the twins. The previous under-the-table payments he’d been getting from the parents had been enough to purchase a decent wardrobe for himself, Nico and West, and other than the occasional purchase of a new card pack for West or some new accessory or other for Nico, he hadn’t had opportunity or desire to spend money on anything else. His first paycheck in his entire life, and he had nothing he needed or wanted to spend it on. How quaint!   
  
Sitting back down at the table, he resumed sorting through the mail, somewhat amused at the mundane turn his thoughts had taken. A few years ago, he would have scorned at such a future, but here and now he found himself relishing it. The horrors of the past were over, and a secure future was ahead. A bright future…what a strange, intoxicating thought. What to do…? Well, maybe…he hadn’t had opportunity to do so before, but with his official paperwork having been established and his first paycheck coming in, maybe now would be a good time to set up some kind of account? If he had the luxury to now save up for later, he should take the opportunity: he couldn’t expect to be living on the twins’ charity forever, after all. They’d grow up, and so would Nico and West, and he had to be ready for that, and…  
  
(If Kiryu had taken the time to think about it, maybe he would have amused himself by how happily he was planning out for the futures of the kids he’d taken under his wing; so similarly to how he’d taken and shaped three young boys out of the dregs of Satellite a few years ago, set their sights on bigger and greater things. How genuine it was now, instead of the self-serving conquest it was before. How starkly different it was, instead of a laser focus on a specific goal and forming an ideal based on that, it was the reverse, setting short goals in pursuit of an ideal. What a turn of thoughts!)  
  
Finishing sorting through the mail, he found a note from Bruno saying that he’d invited the twins to come to the garage after school rather than come straight home, just in case Kiryu still needed to get things in order. Thoughtful of him…Kiryu wondered if maybe a good use of the paycheck would be to at least get Bruno some kind of compensation. The guy would have obviously lost some income for his and Crow’s garage, considering taking care of the kids cut into how many appointments he could have taken, and he’d clearly done at least a decent job of keeping things straight in the apartment. Of course, Bruno probably wouldn’t take the charity, and getting him to accept something would probably be a hassle, but it was the thought that counted, right? He’d have to pop down by the garage later anyway, to pick up the kids and Pone, so he had ample opportunity to at least present the idea, and to see how everyone was settling in the garage now that-

  
Kiryu stiffened, the note falling from his hand and gently dropping to the table. He’d never had the chance to tell the kids and Bruno that Yuusei was staying at the garage now. He’d neglected to tell the spiritually sensitive  _Signers_  that an  _Earthbound God_  was now living in the garage.  
  
Shit.

 

**0-0-0-0-0**

 

 

 

Truth be told, Yuusei had always wanted a garage space like the one Crow had. It wasn’t large or roomy by any means, and scorch marks from explosions marred the ceilings and walls where it was too high to reach, and the garage itself was a tad underground, a bit musty, but Yuusei liked it all the same. It had the sense of being lived in, filled with the scent of oil and grease and always had some sort of human presence in it, whether it was Crow or Bruno being hard at work, the kids or Jack and Carly coming to visit, the occasional customer (which had apparently become a  _lot_  more than “occasional” after one of Carly’s streams, or so Crow had remarked off-handedly), or even Zora working at her own clock shop duties upstairs. It was a home, a place for people to return to. While Martha’s house would always be his beloved childhood home, and Team Satisfaction’s base was always a welcome place to return, a dedicated workspace like this spoke of someone who had the time and means to devote to themselves to their craft, and Crow had certainly carved out his own niche in Neo Domino City with this room. 

Despite this, Yuusei didn’t have it in him to be jealous, and instead enjoyed himself immensely with some gadget or another, especially after Crow had promised to bring him a laptop or something to fix up the next time he went junkyard digging. With a third computer, Yuusei could help contribute to their programming endeavors as they worked to upgrade their D-Wheels (and what fine D-Wheels they were!) for the WRGP without constantly interrupting their own programming work to interject with his own observations. 

(Crow had offered to fix up the laptop as well, but Yuusei decidedly expressed his own preference to spend time fixing it up himself. Yuusei wasn’t Yuusei without some project to engage him, after all.) 

Even with all the excitement of poring over Crow’s garage and getting his fingers in all of Crow’s projects and schematics (oi, Yuusei!), the spirit found himself feeling rather hungry. It was rather funny-when he was alive, he’d have gone full days without sleep or food when engrossed in some project or other, but now that he was dead and keenly aware of his own spiritual weakness, he was almost actually eating like the average person. Or it might have been because Crow kept nudging him to eat and take a break every now and then. Could have been either, really.

Crow had idly mentioned that Yuusei was free to help himself to anything that wasn’t Zora’s (he just had to make sure that the elderly landlady herself didn’t actually spot him spiriting anything away), and it didn’t take long for Yuusei to find a box of cup ramen stashed away in a corner. Red…Daemon’s…Noodle? He visibly made a face reading that, since when was Jack’s dragon a popular brand name? Weird. Still, cup ramen was cup ramen, and the spices put into it admittedly did smell rather good when Yuusei put hot water into them to cook. It didn’t take long for the noodles to finish and for Yuusei to find himself seated comfortably on the couch in the garage, holding child size for the time being while opening up the cup of noodles and taking a mouthful-

_**Sfff-!** _

Ah…he’d eaten too early. The noodles were still piping hot, and as he found his eyes watering he couldn’t help but remember a scene oddly familiar to this. Where the soup was in a chipped bowl rather than a Styrofoam cup, thin and watery compared to the rich broth but hot and delicious all the same, and Crow looking at him with a concerned look, the same he’d give to any of his own children. How different these times were! How bright the future seemed now! How nice it was, to look up at Crow with watering eyes and truthfully say that the only thing wrong was that he’d accidentally burned his tongue, that nothing heavier hung over his shoulders than the oversized cloak that covered them!

“Hooooooiiiii! Crow!”

“Crow! Welcome back!”

He’d nearly emptied the cup when a small group of schoolchildren came in, giggling over something or other that had probably happened either in school or on the way here. He settled into a corner of the sofa, preparing to be ignored by the small group like he had been by all the other customers that had come through. Maybe if he ate slowly enough they’d just ignore the cup sitting there and just assume it was discarded?

“Eh? He’s not here?”

“He and Bruno must have stepped out for a job or something…should we really be here, Rua?”

“Mah, it’s fine, Ruka! The door was open, wasn’t it? They musta just gone out or something, and besides, it’s not like we’re gonna do anything!”

“I don’t know…between Rua and West, we might have a reason to worry…”

“Ah, big sis! That’s so mean!”

Yuusei stared at the children, interest piqued. Those names sounded familiar…didn’t Kiryu mention that he’d started taking care of some kids? A brother, a sister, and a pair of twins…this group looked like that, so that meant…

“Aaah! W-what’s that?! O-on the couch!” Yuusei stiffened. 

“Looks kinda like a doll…a weird one…”

“I guess, but…” One of the twins came closer and reached out for him (Rua, or was it Ruka?), curious. “It looks kinda cute, too-uh?!” Their arm lit up a bright red and they pulled it back, the image of a claw glaring mockingly back at him. He flinched-the light itself seemed to burn him, and even that small action made all the kids jump.

“Huh? Ruka, isn’t that your Signer mark?” the youngest of the four asked, holding onto her other arm. “Why’s it lighting up? You said it only did that if things were dangerous-“

“Aha!” The other twin leapt in front, pointing accusingly with an arm bearing a completely different mark, one that looked like some sort of angular face, or a highly stylized arrowhead. “I know, I know! That’s an Earthbound God!”

Yuusei’s mouth dropped open.

“Rua, that can’t be right! They were all sealed, so-“

“But then, why else would the mark be lighting up? Anyways, you can feel it, can’t you? That thing feels like an Earthbound God! It musta managed to get free or sneak away from getting sealed somehow, and now it’s come back here for revenge! It probably ate Crow and Bruno already and now we’re next!”

**“I…”**  Yuusei swallowed, his mouth having gone dry. He couldn’t speak, he-  **“No, I…you’re mistaken, I didn’t-“**

“Rua, that’s ridiculous, we would have felt it through the mark, they’re probably fine-“

“Okay, but that definitely is an Earthbound, though! Hey, you!” The more energetic twin pointed at Yuusei again, making him flinch back. “You, and me, we’re dueling! Right here, right now! I’m not gonna let you hurt my sister or anyone else!”

**“…”**  Yuusei tried to swallow, to speak, but the suddenness of everything, the brightness of the mark and how he felt like melting under its light, the air of hostility with no warning…

“CRRROOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW! WHO GOT THEIR THIEVING FINGERS INTO MY SECRET CUP RAMEN STASH?!” Jack Atlas’ dulcet tones set the whole garage shaking (as usual) and got all the children’s attention off him for a split second, and Yuusei took the opportunity to flee under a nearby table, shrinking even smaller as he went. In his haste to disappear, he didn’t notice the dregs of his ramen cup empty out onto the floor. Thankfully, it seemed like the kids didn’t notice either, if the shouts of “Ack, it disappeared!” and “It’s bad if we lose tabs on it, let’s keep looking!” meant anything.

Yuusei stared into his empty ramen cup, unseeing. He drew long, shaking breaths in an attempt to calm himself, but it proved futile, and his fears only continued to escalate. Was…was this what he had to awaken to? He’d accepted it, that he was stuck like this forever, that he’d taken the identity of something feared and reviled and the stigmas that came with it, but to be confronted like this…he pulled his robes closer, shaking. Just like last time he’d been brought back to life, he thought to himself, seemingly into freedom, but instead exiling himself into dark corners lest he bring up unsavory thoughts, lest he bring up hostility and anger and and and-

There was more shouting going on outside, he dimly realized. With the voices echoing around him in this cramped spot, hidden in the darkness, it felt too much like being trapped there, with the gods relentlessly snarling and mocking every waking moment. He knew that this wasn’t anything like that, who all these voices clearly belonged to, and yet he couldn’t help but grip the cup tighter, crinkling it as he sat there in the corner, shaking. Couldn’t they just shut up, shut up  _shut up shut up_  and just let him hi-

“Yuusei?”

The ghost found himself staring into Kiryu’s face with wide eyes.

Shit.

 

 

**0-0-0-0-0**

 

  
He’d expected some kind of chaos when he came driving up to the garage, but not quite like…

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT,  _YOUR_  STASH?! THIS IS  _MY_  GARAGE!”

That.

“WELL, A SECRET STASH CAN HARDLY BE KEPT IN MY OWN HOME, CAN IT?! EVERYONE WOULD LOOK FOR IT THERE!”

“BUT WHY WHERE  _I’M_  LIVING?! ZORA ALREADY GIVES ME A HARD TIME ABOUT YOUR ATTITUDE, IMAGINE THE EARFUL I’D GET ABOUT HER FINDING OUT YOU STORE STUFF HERE WITHOUT HER PERMISSION!”

“WELL, I  _THOUGHT_  I COULD TRUST A FRIEND TO SAFEGUARD SOMETHING SO IMPORTANT. BUT CLEARLY YOU’RE NOT THAT GOOD OF A FRIEND NOW, ARE YOU?!”

“THAT FUCKING CLOWN FROM SECURITY ALREADY BROKE IN HERE AND STOLE CUP RAMEN BEFORE AND YOU THINK THAT’S A GOOD IDEA?!”

“ _WHAT?!_ I WASN’T INFORMED OF THAT PARTICULAR DETAIL! I RESCIND MY PREVIOUS OPINION OF YOU, YOU ARE COMPLETELY INCOMPETENT AND-“

“YEAH, YEAH YEAH, JUST GET YOUR STUPID RAMEN OUT OF HERE!”

“FINE! BUT IF I FIND OUT THAT  _BRUNO_  WAS THE ONE WHO ATE IT WHILE WE WERE GONE-“

“I-I didn’t touch any cup ramen! H-honest!”

Poor Bruno. They didn’t even notice Kiryu rolling up to the garage, clattering bones and all. All the better, he supposed. Maybe he could get done with things in pea-

“Aah, so you weren’t eaten after all! Great, great!”

…What. 

“Hah? Who’s getting eaten?” Crow raised an eyebrow, apparently not sure whether to be confused at the sudden interruption or wondering when Rua had gotten into the garage. 

“THE ONLY THING THAT WE SHOULD WORRY ABOUT GETTING EATEN IS MY PRECIOUS-“

“NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR STUPID CUP RAMEN, JACK!”

Right, then. Kiryu ignored them in favor of heading inside, although he did raise an eyebrow at Rua insisting that they should all listen to him, that something big was going on inside the garage. His suspicions were only confirmed at finding Nico and West staying close to Ruka, who looked unsure about the whole mess going on.

“D-Don’t worry. I’m pretty sure it can’t be as big a deal as Rua says…” 

“Eh? But Ruka, didn’t you say that it did feel like an Earthbound? So what if it really is…”

Immediately, Kiryu stepped into the garage, garnering the kids’ immediate attention. He ignored their surprised cries at his presence, however, instead focusing on whatever clues he could find to figure out what had happened. A trail of spilled noodles and broth on the floor near them was what he’d found, and idly remembering the subject of the argument outside, he followed it. It led to under one of the tables in the corner, and as he kneeled down to investigate he didn’t notice Rua dragging the others inside.

“Yuusei?”

The spirit’s eyes had grown to inhuman size again, he noticed. With how small he was, it really did make him look like a small bug lurking in the corner, and Kiryu couldn’t help but remember him and the other Dark Signers constantly finding Yuusei hiding in the oddest places. Back then, he’d never really thought as to why Yuusei was always doing that, he’d chalked it down to curiosity back then, but…  
Yuusei didn’t answer, and Kiryu reluctantly reached over to fish him out. Normally, he’d let him be, but with everything going on…it was better to get things straightened out as soon as possible. Yuusei didn’t resist being taken out, but he clearly wasn’t happy about it if the way his head flopped somewhat to the side meant anything. Still, by the time Kiryu stood up to look over Yuusei properly, his eyes had closed, the two curved glowing lines being the only indication that he was affecting a smile. 

**“Ah, you found me…I was just finishing this up, see? It was getting a bit noisy, and I wanted to eat in peace, so…”**

Yuusei really was a terrible liar, Kiryu noted. Even back in Team Satisfaction, Yuusei was one of the more open of the group, heart always on his sleeve and passionate to the end despite his cool demeanor. How strange was it, then, that he didn’t notice these tells during his time as a Dark Signer. How could he fail to notice Yuusei tensing up every time he was snatched up, the hint of a waver in his voice as he searched for the right words to say without stepping on the god’s toes, or the unnatural smoothness that would sometimes happen if either of them spent too long on their thoughts? How could he never see the reason for Yuusei constantly squirrelling away? The way he was back then…would he even be unable to see this obvious farce, the invisible smile and tense body, holding an empty, crinkled, upside-down ramen cup that was barely bigger than him?

“Yuusei.”

The ghost blinked, eyes shrinking back down to normal in his surprise. Kiryuu could have almost laughed at such transparency, but instead chose to put a hand on Yuusei’s head, patting down the spiked hair and forcing the ghost to look directly at him.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to hide anymore.”

**“…”**  Yuusei’s mouth dropped open, his small body starting to visibly shake. He bowed his head, dropping the ramen cup to the floor as he finally lost his grip on it.  **“I…I…”**

Kiryuu held him close, and the spirit found himself burying his head in the man’s shoulder, the two oblivious to the others watching with different levels of unease, confusion, and realization.

And for the first time since he’d come out of the ground, Yuusei cried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don't worry it's fine zora went out for groceries so nobody got in trouble
> 
> also jack never claimed his ramen stash in the end. it's yuusei's now. jack now has his own stash in his own home like it should be. carly told him he could keep it on top of the fridge because 1) no one ever looks up there and 2) only JACK ATLAS can reach up there with any kind of poise. he was mollified. 
> 
> now jack has his own stash of red daemon's noodle to eat and yuusei has his own stash of red daemon's noodle to laugh at. everyone wins.


End file.
